The human with a gem
by chimchar14
Summary: He didn't want to be human...he wished to be more, what this human didn't know is that his wish be come true.
1. A beginning

This is a story of becoming more. A boy wished to be more than just a simple human, he strived toward being something greater. His young mind though could not understand the limits of his body. Every day he would try to become stronger, smarter, faster, an attempt to become beyond what is natural. Unfortunately, his efforts were futile, the words of the doubters corrupted his mind, and forced him to relinquish his plan and just become a part of the regular human cycle. He did his work with no passion, his heart beating at a slow rhythm as he wished for more than just a dull world to live in. At the age of 18 he finally abandoned his home and went to explore the world, hoping to find grand adventures...yet all he find was a world of despair and sickness. With his own two eyes he saw the horrific truth of what the world truly is, a barren wasteland filled with pain and suffering.

He contemplated about his life, standing on the edge of a cliff, looking at the blue ocean, hearing the waves crash against the cliffside. Just before he could take one more step to end it all...he heard someone yell at him to stop. The young man looked behind him yet saw nobody. He believed what he heard was a work of his dulled imagination, but no matter what it was, it convinced him to step away, and try to return home.

Once at the land he called home, he had heard news of strange phenomenons in a small town not far from where he is. He thought it would just be some false rumours, but a spark in his heart told him to go. It was as if the innocence of his youth was leading him as he went to investigate. He finally found the mundane looking area callted "Beach City" and felt a warmth spread slowly through his body.

He could not understand it, but something about the place screamed "adventure" to him. He scoured the town carefully, talking to the citizens and mayor too, yet found nothing. Of course, the place seemed surprisingly peaceful and happy. Everyone seemed to know each other and had happy bonds. Yet this wasn't what the young man yearned for. The waves of depression started to crash into his mind yet again, distorted voices of the past discouraging once again, and making his view of the world slowly turn gray again. He thought it was all over...until a bright flash of light snapped him out of it.

He searched around until he saw a strange area, a large fence covering the mouth of a cave, seemingly separate from the citizens of Beach City. Every logical nerve in his brain told him to stay away, for fear that he would be either hurt by unsavory people, or disappointed once again. Hqe was just about to turn away until he saw a bright light glow from within the cave. With a pit of fear in his gut, yet adrenalin coursing through his veins, he finally climbed over the fence and toward the cave. He didn't know what would happen, would there be something undiscovered, pirate's treasure, alien life, an infinity stone that alters continuity? His ideas became more ridiculous as he went closer, he felt as if his child like wonder was coming back. What he found though…is a mystery for now. The tale of this young boy will continue next time.


	2. Gems

The young man looks and is surprised by his discovery. He believed that there was something more magical with the world, but he never thought he would find it. When he first walked into the cavern, all he saw at first was a strange white door, and a slightly elevated circle on the floor. To say he was confused was an understatement, but he was not deterred. He searched around the area in hopes to find something or someone. The whole cave seemed ancient, like it existed for a millennia, yet it seemed lived in as well. Just when he was about to head home, he accidently collided face first into something. When he fell down, he heard a voice of concern over his well being. He opens his eyes and sees that he didn't bump into something, but somebody. In front of him was a large woman, with a mountain of pink hair and a kind face. When he got up, he could clearly see that the woman must have been 8 feet tall. She strangely seemed to have a gem where her navel was. He was of course nervous, and started rambling apologies to her, but she just smiled and pet his head softly.

He was about to try and say something coherent, but then jumped in surprise as he sees the elevated circle glow brightly, and another woman comes out, this one very large as well, with red skin, shades, and a haircut that makes her head look like a square. She had two gems in the palms of her hands but they were different shapes.. Two others would come out, a slightly smaller girl that resembled a bird, around his height, yet was built like an elegant ballerina, a thin body yet still looking strong. Her oval like gem resided directly on her forehead. Behind her was an incredibly short and young purple girl with white hair and an energetic gem residing just above her heart. Were these gems a symbol of a gang? The boy was unsure.

The first large woman smiled and invited them over to look over him. She referred to them with strange names. The red one was Garnet, the ballerina Pearl, and the short one Amethyst. The tall woman was apparently Rose, as Pearl yelled her name in surprise and stood defensively in front of her, seeming to see the young man as a possible threat. Garnet seemed indifferent, yet Amethyst looked extremely curious. With some time, the boy finally introduced himself and explained why he was in their home in the first place. They all seem genuinely interested by his tale, albeit Pearl still extremely cautious.

Once the boy's tale was done, Rose smiled down at him and took his hand, leading him to the elevated circle. The other three came as well onto it. Rose referred to the circle as a warp pad, and promised to show the young man the magic and adventure he always wanted. His felt like he was seeing stars as the pad glowed and they appeared in this strange land, where the fields were filled with strawberry plants and weapons of many shapes and sizes. The boy was astounded as he looked around with a wide smile on his face. The gem bearers spoke to each other behind him, yet he could not listen as he was too busy exploring the area.

Thoughts raced through his mind, that maybe with these four women, he can have the adventure he wanted. Before he could go too far though, Garnet stops him in his tracks before he could fall down a deep ravine. The boy thanks Garnet and she smiled softly at him, telling him to be more careful. The others come and explain that this land was where a massive battle took place, one not known in the history of mankind. The boy had so many questions, but before he could speak, he saw a small shadow sneak onto Amethyst. Without thinking twice, he pushed the small girl out of the way, and his eyes locked on to see a beast he could hardly describe. It's body seemed to exist, yet wasn't physical. It seemed made directly of volcanic ash, but that was impossible. The beast changed shape with the gas, sometimes resembling monstrous figures, and rarely looking like a frightened girl. The young man was conflicted on how to act, but the gem bearers did not hesitate to attack. They each seemed to summon weapons out of their gems, Garnet with large intimidating fists, Pearl with a lance, Amethyst a whip, and Rose with a mighty shield and sword. They all attacked the wispy creature, showing little mercy. The young man did not know what to do, should he help or run? The answer seems to have come for him as the wisp blasted away the gem bearers with a fiery shockwave. It seemed more intent on escaping instead of fighting, yet the gems would not let it.

In a panic, the wisp charges toward the boy. He was too stunned to do anything but put his hands out in a last second attempt to stop it. The wisp though flew over his arms and into his open mouth. He could taste the warm smoky yet asphyxiating being as it seemed to go through the innards of his body. He desperately tried to grab it by the tail and pull it out, but as he struggled, Rose rushed to help by slaying it. She raised her sword to attack it, but was too late as the beast fully escaped into the boy's body, leaving him to be the victim of the sword. Rose was unable to stop as she swung her sword, effectively slicing off his right hand.

Rose and the other gem bearers were shocked as they saw the damage they have done. The boy seemed disconnected from the world though, his mind unable to comprehend his surroundings. He couldn't hear the screams of fear and regret, unable to feel the smoke and fire in his heart, and could not feel the blood rushing out of his hand and onto the dirt next to him. His eyes rolled back as he staggered backwards, falling into the ravine behind him. Before he could hit the ground or water, his eyes slowly closed. His fate….


	3. A new ally?

Darkness...there is nothing else. There is just a black void...yet he is not alone. A whimper can be heard. The human swims through the darkness toward the sound. He finds a young woman, unable to stop the tears from rolling down her face. He did not think, for some reason, he knew what he had to do. He floated behind her and hugged her close, sharing the warmth of his body with her. She seems to stop crying, but holds close to him, in desperate need of him. He slowly nods… promising to never let go. The darkness seems comforting now, like a blanket that keeps them close together.

….He awakens. Once his eyesight adjusts, he sees Rose, crying on...what appears to be a stump where his right hand used to be. He thought he would feel pain, but surprisingly...he felt nothing. His open eyes catch Rose's attention and she tells the others to come and see that he is okay. Rose explains that he fell directly in the river in the ravine during the battle once the beast snaked into his body and Rose accidentally cut off his hand. They brought him back to their home and attempted to heal him. Rose said her tears had healing abilities, which sounded farfetched, but his wound was not bleeding, but was now just a useless stump. Rose rambled off apologies, but he just shushed her and accepted her apology. Despite the loss of his favorite hand, he seemed content.

The gem bearers promised to let him stay until he felt he could do things on his own again. It was definitely difficult trying to do things with only one arm, but he wouldn't give up. Every night though, his dreams would bring him back to that dark void, where he silently spent time with the girl. At night he would ask her name, but when he woke up the next morning, he could never remember it. He wanted to talk to the gem about it, but feared they would try to take her away. So he went to the library for information, not realising he was being followed. He searched through many books, trying to figure out what the girl in the shadows was. Each of the girls he met had gems, so he believed that there may be a similar case with this girl. He still remembers her in her beast form...her mind was broken, corrupted and unable to do anything but act on a animal instinct, yet in his body, she was safe.

Before he could search any farther though, Garnet revealed herself. He wanted to explain himself, but Garnet just put a hand up, pulled out a chair, and started helping him. It seems there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to her, but that was a question for another day. He tried to remember as much as he can, the beast looking like ash, the smoke and fire. He then thought maybe volcanos would be a link, and he would find himself to be right. There is a particular gemstone that grows in volcanos. He spoke the name slowly, "Obsidian" and felt his body convulse, and feel himself slowly pass out once again.

Garnet panicked and went to take him to the gems. As they tried to figure out what happened to him, his mind was currently in the void again. "Your name...it's Obsidian...I like it." He smiled happily at her, and she felt her eyes water as a smile grew on her face. "Me?...My name is…" Suddenly a light flashes and he wakes up. The gems look at him in astonishment, unable to believe their eyes. He didn't know what was so surprising as he gently scratched his head...but realised the arm he was using was his right arm. He looked to see that obsidian replaced where his right hand once was. He carefully flexed his knew fingers, and saw that they moved as if they were there ever since he was a baby. Despite obsidian being so sharp though, it was smooth and warm, and felt like it could pass off as a regular body part. The gems smiled at him, but were worried about Obsidian existing in his body. He assured them, that everything would be fine, he knew there bond together would make them better than ever, and a better person too.

He soon packed his belongings as he began to leave. He enjoyed his times with the gems but he knew he had more of the world to explore now. With Obsidian with him, he felt ready to take on the whole world. He looked at Beach City one more time, with a shout he yelled "My name is Maxwell Ignitus! And I am the person who shapes my own path in life!" Max smiled wide before running off, ready to explore and truly carve a name into history about who he is.


	4. The return

So, there is my backstory. 50 years ago, I was just a traveler, and suddenly got an obsidian gem taking host in my body. Yes I said 50 years, apparently I can't age though, stuck in a the same body, and yes I used "I" because the third person mystery protagonist thing was just to get things ready for my big entrance...plus it got tedious. Anyways, during those 50 years I've gone to new heights in my exploration, seas, lands, and sky, I had no limits. I also trained my body and mind in ways that helped me adapt more to my new gem abilities, and let me tell you this, it was not easy learning how to keep myself from breaking doors when I open them too fast. In fact, none of it was easy, but Obsidian cheered me on the entire way. Now I felt ready. In my reliable little truck, I drove to beach city, excited to show the gems how much I have grown. Once at the city limits, I looked to my right hand, the sun making the sharp gemstone shine eerily. I flexed the pseudo fingers and sighed softly, putting on my gloves to hide it, you'd be surprised how many people get scared from it. Gently putting my foot on the gas, I made my way to the beach.

What I saw...was interesting to say the least. I thought the gems would still be in that cave...but now they have a house? I guess it didn't really bug me, but didn't the gems have their own rooms or something….whatever, thinking about it too much will distract me. Time to put my eyes on the prize! I went up the stairs carefully, and knocked on the wood next to the screen door. I was beyond excited to see them again, the doofiest grin on my face. The door slowly opened and I saw….some potato child?

"Um...hello. Do some multicolored women live here?" After saying that, I slapped my forehead, reminding myself to be more careful with my word choices.

"Oh you mean Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl?"

"YES! You know them?"

"Of course I do, come on in sir."

I chuckled at being called sir, this kid seemed nice. Were the gems running a daycare for some money? Now that I think about it, where do they get their money? No, wait, focus!

"Well aren't you a gentleman." I say in the most fake fancy voice I can do.

"Well of course." He replies in the same goofy voice.

With a smile I walk in and sit on the nearby couch.

"My name is Maxwell Ignitus. But you can call me Max."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Steven, uh, Steven Quartz Universe."

My first clue should have been when he said "Quartz" but it didn't seem to hit me at the time.

"So, not to be rude, but where are the gems?"

"Oh they're a bit busy on a mission. I wanted to come along, but Garnet said I would meet someone important if I stay here...oh hey! Maybe it's you!"

"Hehehe, well I don't know about important, but I did want to spring a surprise on them...wait how did Garnet know I would be here?"

"Well because of Garnet's future vision, it's awesome!"

"...future vision? Hmm, I guess you learn something new everyday."

"Wait so how do you know the gems?" he asks as he squints and looks at me curiously.

"I could ask you the same question. Well, let's just say we've crossed paths before."

"Sounds a little…..suspicious….hehehe, well you seem nice. As for me, well I-"

Before he could continue, the familiar light of the warp pad shined as I looked to see them once again. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and….no Rose? I was confused sure, but more happy to actually see 3 out of 4 of them after so long.

"Well I say that was a job well done." It seems Amethyst has...grown? Well gems don't necessarily have a body, maybe she wanted to look a bit older.

"Job well done? The whole temple was destroyed!" And there was Pearl, with a nice new hair do too.

"What matters is that we stopped the gem." Garnet had a small bubble floating above her hand before she tapped on the top and it vanished.

"Well I guess, but it would have been nice to-" Pearl stared aghast right at me, while I just had a smile on my face.

"Huh? Did you break Pearl?" Amethyst looked at her confused before following her eyes and looked at me with her own wide eyes.

"Welcome back Maxwell." Garnet had this knowing smile as she looked at me. I'd have to ask about that future vision later.

"Hehehe, Max is just fine, no need for formalities. And it's great to be back!"

"M-max! I-it's great to see you b-but-"

"What Pearl? After 50 years, I'm not allowed to come by for a visit?" I Just chuckle softly but was not ready for the tackle hug Amethyst gave me.

"Wow dude! It's been forever, you haven't grown at all."

"Says the purple shortstack hugging me." I pet her head a bit until she finally let go.

"So what brings you back?"

"Well I thought now would be a good time to show off my progress with my training."

As the four were conversing, Steven just sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"Oh, where are my manners, sorry for leaving you out Steven." I rub the back of my neck embarrassed.

"It's okay, It's nice to see everyone so happy."

"Which reminds me, Pearl, when did you guys start taking care of kids?"

Pearl just froze up, the others with uneasy looks on their face.

"...no need to keep me in suspense."

"It's just…" Then Pearl began to explain explain, with the others interjecting at times to help. Apparently Rose and a human, wanted to have a baby together, but it would cause her to lose her physical form so he can be born.

"...wow...just...damn. Pardon my language, but I never thought Rose was so...just the thought of giving up your being to create another, it's….amazing." Was I sad to not be able to see Rose? Sure. But seeing that her love created this kid….it was wonderful.

"You're not mad or anything?" Steven asked nervously

"Why would I be mad? This is fantastic. Mazaltov! I may not be jewish but whatever!" I pick Steven and carry him on my shoulder.

"Congratulations to Rose and her lucky man who made this cool kid."

Steven laughed heartily as I carried him around. The others seemed happy that I was taking the news well, but I knew I had more to say.

Setting Steven down I looked at the gems with a determined look in my eyes.

"So, enough beating around the bush. The main reason I came back was to show off my training with Obsidian." I pull of my gloves, putting my right hand on full view.

Steven gasped as he saw my arm. "Wait, you're half gem like me?"

"Not exactly, it's a bit of a long story. To keep it simple, Obsidian was a corrupted gem, but when she took residence in my body, I was able to help her, and we grew a bond so that I can grow stronger than any human, and now I want to test my abilities against the gems. I want a no holds barred battle, between me and the Crystal Gems!"


	5. Vs Amethyst

"...AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Amethyst was just cracking up as soon as she heard Max, leaving him to blush a bit.

"Amethyst, there is no need to be rude." Despite saying this, Pearl looked amused too.

"No offense Maxwell, but while you may have training, it unfortunately is not anything that can compare to a gem's training." Garnet was trying to be kind, but it didn't seem to do anything for Max.

"So my training means nothing huh? Then how about you three put your money where your mouth is?"

"I tried eating that money stuff, it's not bad but I've had better."

"It's a figure of speech Amethyst, I mean that, if you three are so confident, then you won't have any trouble beating me in a fight."

Amethyst just snickered and took a step forward.

"Wait Amethyst, we still shouldn't hurt a human."

"Don't worry Pearl, I'll be gentle with him."

Max just glared at her, but then smiled. "Well, so you wouldn't mind if I used my weapons?"

"Nothing you got can beat me." She smirks as she pulls out her whip from the gem on her chest.

"We'll see about that." Max looked at his Obsidian hand, willing it to glow and materialize a black cloak. He learned long ago that gems can keep items in their gem, so he taught himself to do so as well. Unfortunately he can only store a small amount of items in his hand...but that's what the cloak is for. He puts on the dark cloak and smirks as he gets into a fighting stance.

"Here it comes!" Amethyst yelled it out as she swung her whip toward Max...only for him to stay still and take the attack.

"Wow, I knew humans were bad but you didn't even move." She tried to pull back her whip, but sees that Max has an iron grip on it.

"It's not that, I just wanted to see how strong you are...I must say I'm not disappointed." He looks at her with a fierce look in his eyes and a wide smirk. He pulls at her whip, surprisingly strong enough to pull her toward him, giving him the perfect chance to give a devastating kick straight to her stomach, making her grunt in pain and fall onto the ground.

"Still think I'm weak?~" He smiles condescendingly but his small victory was short lived as Amethyst curled into a ball and dashed straight at him, launching him backwards. "Well that's the spirit!" He just laughs as he lands on the sandy beach, then easily gets up and dusts himself off.

"No more Nice Gem!" She growls as she glows and shape shifts into this hairy muscular wrestler type body.

Max just chuckles and rushes toward her, a trail of dust following him as he reaches into his cloak as he closes the distance between the two of them.

Amethyst runs toward Max, then jumps high, ready to body slam. But Max pulls out a combat shotgun straight out of his cloak and fires directly at her. A shot like that would kill a human, but after some…"careful testing" Max learned that bullets can't kill a gem, but do a ton of damage. So while the shotgun blast didn't kill Amethyst, it sure knocked the wind out of her and blasted her away.

"Ow!" She reverted back to her regular form and glares at him. "What was that!?"

"What? I thought it was okay for me to use any weapon, so I'll use every weapon." He smirks and puts away the shotgun only to pull out a baseball bat.

"Whoa! How does that work?!" Steven was at first to surprised by seeing Max was half gem, and the fight to really speak up at first, but now felt like a good time to interject.

"Well simple, while studying theoretical physics and with help from Obsidian, I made myself a nice inter dimensional portal to my arsenal of weapons." Max looked so happy explaining it to Steven, unfortunately that made him too distracted to realize that Amethyst pulled out her second whip and lashed them furiously at Max.

"Gah!" He shielded his body as best as he can while Amethyst continued her onslaught. *This is bad, unless I do something...I got it!*

With a smirk he grabs something from his cloak and rolls it through her whips and at her feet.

Amethyst looked confused as she saw the small object, revealing it to be a small smoke bomb, which immediately spewed white has and clouded her vision

"Hey! Quit hiding and fight!" She searches around desperately, not realizing Max was right behind her.

"Here comes the GRAND SLAM!" Amethyst looks behind herself, but it was too late as Max swings, breaking his wooden bat in the process as he smashed her into the air. She was barely conscious as she flew through the air, only for Garnet to catch her.

"Amethyst! Is she okay?" Pearl looks over Amethyst, fortunately seeing no cracks in her gem or anything.

"She's fine, but I believe we underestimated our opponent." Garnet was about to lay her down, but Amethyst struggled to get up.

"N-no, I can still fight."

"No Amethyst, you fought well, but you need to rest." Garnet said in a slightly concerned voice.

"But…" Before she could say anything else, Steven and Max come by and they give her some donuts.

"Max wanted to give you these as thanks for the fight!" Steven happily eats one as he sits with Amethyst to watch over her.

"Yeah, sorry Amethyst. I needed to prove I was strong. If I could beat you, then that means my training really was worth it! But I'm not done yet." Max looks to Garnet and Pearl. "I swore to beat all of you. So who will be my next opponent?"

Authors note: sorry for switching to third person, I didn't realize till after I finished the chapter. I'm sorry if I continue to be inconsistent, this is my first time doing anything like this. Thanks so much for the few of you who have favorited my story, I can't wait to make more chapters!


	6. Vs Pearl

The gems felt the need to be cautious, after seeing Maxwell and his skill, they knew that they needed to be more careful. So Pearl felt she was the perfect choice.

"I will be your opponent Mr. Ignitus."

"Excellent, I'll be sure not to disappoint you." Max smiles as he backs up, giving them room for the battle to begin.

Pearl focused her hands above the gem on her head, summoning her spear and getting into her stance for battle.

"Alright let's do it!" Max pulls out dual pistols and fires at Pearl relentlessly. Despite this, Pearl seemed able to dodge and deflect the bullets with a grace that only she was able to master.

"I am of a different level of strength, you cannot win!" Pearl aims her spear and fires a powerful bolt of energy at Max. His eyes widen as he tries to dodge it but the energy bolt damages his leg.

"Gah! Damn." He made a mental note to be more careful with cursing around Steven, but he had to shift his weight to one leg to try and stay stable.

"You're too weak now you lose." Despite her words, Max just grins and starts hopping on his good leg with his arms up. "You kidding me? I'm just getting started!"

Pearl was confused, but then Max's leg catches flame. Pearl was about to go and help, but Max then stood firm on both legs, the flames dissipating, his leg perfectly fine, albeit a bit covered in soot.

"H-how?"

"It took time to perfect it, but I call it my Phoenix burn. With it I can heal any of my wounds." He looked triumphant, but he was visibly tired. It seems using that ability left him drained.

"I-I better finish this fast." Max returns his pistols, and pulls out his sniper rifle. Taking aim and firing at Pearl.

"You can't beat me!" Pearl dashes at Max, putting the trident adjustments to her spear as she thrusts at Max. Maxwell swings the rifle as if it were a club, parrying her attacks, then pulling out a pistol to fire at her at close range, doing some vital damage.

"You may have had the advantage at long range, but close quarters are my ally." He sweeps her legs and pounds her gut with the end of his gun. Once she was on the ground, he pulled his shotgun and aimed it directly at her forehead.

"Checkmate."

"...this isn't chess." She says in a salty manner before sighing.

Max smiles and puts his weapons away, putting his hand out to help her up. She smiles slightly and gladly takes his hand.

"I will admit, you proved yourself to be a worthy adversary. You have trained yourself well."

"Thanks Pearl, that means a lot to hear from you." He helps her back to the other gems.

"Man I was sure you would win." Amethyst pouts a bit but smiles at the two of them.

"You both did well."

"Thanks Garnet, but I'm not done." Everyone looks at Max, not sure if he was serious. He already fought Amethyst and Pearl, he looked tired, yet he still wanted to fight Garnet?

"You can't be serious...Maxwell, you already proved yourself, there is no need to continue."

"That's where you're wrong Garnet...I need to show all of my progress. I'm okay if I lose to you, but I won't be satisfied until we battle!"


	7. Vs Garnet

"...fine." The others looked at Garnet with surprise.

"Thank you Garnet." Max gets in position, Garnet summoning her large powerful fists.

Before Max could pull out a weapon though, Garnet rushed at Max, and delivered a powerful punch to his chest, sending him flying several meters until he hit the ground,

"I'm sorry Maxwell, but I will have to finish this fast for your own good." She took a few steps forward before hearing a chuckle from Max. He slowly stood up, clutching his chest but smiling wide.

"I knew something like this would happen. I'm too exhausted in this form...I need to stop relying on my human body...I am to be superhuman."

The Crystal gems look to Max as he puts his hands together, one flesh and blood, and one a superheated volcanic rock. As he holds them together, the link between Max and Obsidian grows more. His cloak vanishes back into his hand and his body goes on fire. His skin becomes covered soot as fire surrounds him.

"This form relies on both my skills as a human, and the fiery power of Obsidian. You can't beat me now!"

"We'll have to see about that." Garnet runs at him at full speed, throwing a powerful punch at Max, only for him to grab it with with his crystallized hand. The obsidian seems to have grown bigger. With his free hand his gives his own devastating punch, making Garnet launch into the ocean with a massive splash.

Max stays in the lookout, knowing Garnet wouldn't be bested so easily. Suddenly out of the ocean a seashell is thrown at his head, but his heat destroys the shell before it can hit him.

"Hehehe, is that your best?" Just after he says that, Garnet comes flying out of the water and punches him incredibly hard in the face, then throwing punch after punch, just a barrage attacking Maxwell. It looked like it would defeat Max, but then his eyes widen as his body heats up more. With a yell, the area around him explodes, ash everywhere.

The whole fight was impossible to see from all of the ash. Steven looks around as best as he can, but then the ash clears, showing that only Garnet was standing and Max was in the floor.

It seemed like Garnet was the victor, but then she falls forward, face planting into the sand. Max gets up, slightly scratched but overall victorious.

"H-he won?" Pearl was absolutely astonished, Amethyst had her mouth agape, and Steven had stars in his eyes.

"That was awesome!" He goes to congratulate Max, but first checks on Garnet.

"D-don't worry Steven, I'm fine." She adjusts her position, sitting up and smiling at Steven as she fixes her visor.

"I have to say, even with the flame form, that was not easy. I need to train some more." Max chuckles as he struggled to stay standing, his body exhausted.

"Well before that, let's get inside. You all rest, I'll make some food and some ice packs." Steven smiles as he helps everyone into the house.

"Gotta say, you three really helped raise this kid into a model good citizen."

"Well I don't like to brag." Amethyst acts as if she did all the work, just for Garnet to lightly bop her head.

"We always had Steven's best interests at heart." Pearl almost went to memory lane as she thought of Steven growing up into such a kind young man.

"...how has his training been going?"

"He's really progressing well, gaining so much more control, and discovering more abilities as he grows." Garnet smiled as she looked to Steven as he tried to subtly eat some of the whip cream he put on his pancakes.

"Hehehe…"

"Dude please don't tell me you wanna fight him."

"No it's not that...but I'd kind of like to train with him" The gems looked at him confused.

"Um, may I ask why?" Pearl asked concerned.

"Well, I know you three trained him well..but you gave him training as a gem...I was thinking maybe showing him the human side of combat can help him progress more. I may not of known Rose well, but she helped me become a better being...so the least I can do is help be there for her precious kid."

The gems considered his offer together until Garnet spoke to him. "We'll think about it."

"Hehehe, good enough for me." He smiled as Steven came back with plates of his...creative dishes. He smiled as he looked at the four, thinking that maybe this was the start of something amazing.


	8. Who is Steven Universe?

The next morning everyone was in better shape. Max was doing his daily routine of stretches and exercises. Unfortunately it was earlier in the morning than Steven was used to. So the poor kid was woken up by Max's exercising.

"Max? What are you doing? The sun isn't up yet."

"Oh sorry Steven, I'm trying to get back into my training schedule. I need to get stronger if I wanna do my next fight."

"What do you mean?"

"...well~ don't tell the gems yet, but next time I fight them, I want them all to fuse."

"You mean you wanna fight Alexandrite!?"

"Shh! Not so loud dude, what if they hear you?"

"Oh sorry...but that's just crazy...cool, but crazy."

"Well I need to get as strong as I can...who's Alexandrite?"

"Huh? That's Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl fused together."

"Oh so they have a name? Sorry, Obsidian and I don't know much about fusion, except that it's a relatively new thing for different gems to fuse."

"I see, but yeah! When the gems fuse, they don't just become two people squished together, but someone new!"

"Interesting...tell me more."

"Gladly! Well there is Ruby and Sapphire who make Garnet-" He covers his mouth after saying that.

"...wait, Garnet is a fusion? That explains a lot. But why is she fused?"

"Well...it's because they love each other. Ruby and Sapphire love each other so much that they hate being apart, so they would fuse and be Garnet."

"...wow, that's beautiful to hear."

For the rest of the morning the two talk to each other, exchanging stories and knowledge of gems. Max even learns of two other gems who live in a barn not too far from Beach City.

"Lapis Lazuli and Peridot?"

"Yeah! I can't wait to introduce you to them."

Max chuckles, enjoying Steven's happy nature...it reminded him a lot of when he was little. Before they could continue, the doorway to the gems' room opens and Amethyst comes out, in a very sleepy state.

"Uh, hey there Amethyst, you okay?" He waves his hand I. amethyst face and she just keeps walking in a trance like state. She goes to the fridge and takes out an abundance of food.

"Oh not again!"

"What's going on?"

"She's sleep eating, last time she did this, she ate all of my waffles."

Max snaps his fingers in Amethyst's face, trying to help her wake up.

"We gotta stop her, but how?"

Steven looks around worriedly, but Max gets an idea. He puts Amethyst's arm between two slices of bread.

"Wait what are you doing?"

"Just a solution to our problem that also doubles as a prank." He chuckles as Amethyst takes a bite out of her hand/sandwich.

"Yow!" Amethyst looks at her hand, finally awake. Max and Steven were laughing their butts off at her reaction.

"Sorry Amethyst, but it was the the only idea I had that involved you waking up, and making us laugh."

"Hehehe, you were sleep eating again Amethyst."

"Really? Well sorry, but no need to make me eat myself." She looks at her own hand curiously.

"Don't even think about it. I will body slam you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Amethyst begrudgingly puts away the food.

"So what were you two talking about?"

"Oh nothing much, just trying to know my fellow half gem."

"Hehehe, yeah! We're the half bros!" Steven said this with one of the happiest grins on his face. Max blushed a little, not expecting to be called a brother, but smiles and looks at Amethyst. "Yeah, half bros."

"Hehehe, more like the dork bros."

"You're just jealous~"

"Oh no, we don't wanna make Amethyst jealous! Come half bro, let us explore Beach City together!" Steven jumps happily, accidentally floating in the air a bit before landing.

Max follows behind, happy to learn more about Steven. For the rest of the day they had fun going around, talking to the many citizens of Beach City, going to Steven's favorite places, and sharing more stories together. Soon they decided to relax on the beach, looking at the sunset together.

"...Sunsets are so weird."

"Why? They're pretty."

"That's exactly why, they shine all of the colors in your eyes that help your mind feel better and overall happier."

"Wow...you really know a lot."

"Well, when you're almost 70 years old, you learn a lot."

"I wish I was older, so then I could know a lot...then maybe I can make better choices."

"You don't have to be in a hurry to grow up...you're plenty smart Steven. There are times I wished I stayed young, still so happy and seeing the beauty in the world...but at my age, I can only see the bad things. Yet with Obsidian… I remember there is still so much more, and many beautiful things in life still exist."

"Yeah...my mom saw the beauty in everything...Rose Quartz was someone amazing…"

"...You can tell me what's wrong. I'd like you to think you can tell me anything. I'm not the gems or your dad...but I can be a friend, or brother...half bros."

"The thing is...I've learned that she did so much, some amazing things, and some...questionable things….she shattered Pink Diamond."

"...keep going, it's okay."

"I understand she did it for the good of the people...but it's still so strange to me...and it's not just that. I know everyone says how they love me...but I feel like…" He slowly starts to cry. "...I feel like, if Rose stayed and I never existed….everyone would be so much happier."

"...I know that feeling….in my home, no one liked me, calling me a mistake, everyone hated my existence. There are still times I question why I keep living...but then I remember that there are plenty of reasons for you and me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's start with you. You may think everyone would be happier, but what about Connie? You were her first friend. And what about Lapis and Peridot? You told me how you helped them change their alliance to protect you and Earth. And while your dad and the gems may have grief inside them, you always brighten everything up. Your smile helps them get better everyday. If given the choice...they would happily keep you instead of getting Rose back."

Steven was sniffling as he was crying hard, his words helping him feel a lot better.

"You do not have to define your existence as, Rose Quartz. You are Steven Quartz Universe, your life is your own."

He decided to hug Steven and let him cry. Soon the poor boy, falls asleep, too emotionally exhausted. He smiles and carries Steven back home, tucking him into bed.

"Is Steven okay?" Pearl comes over and checks Steven seeing the leftover dry tears under his eyes.

"We just had a big talk… I was just doing my job as a big brother." Pearl looks at him confused while Max walks to the couch to rest.


	9. Water and Fire

For the past few weeks, Maxwell has properly made his mark in Beach City, being a regular citizen to see. It was a relatively small city, pretty much everyone knew each other, and Max was glad to be a part of it. He even managed to convince the gems to let him come for a mission, with the help of Steven of course. Things went exactly as planned...by which I mean all hell broke loose.

"AAAAHH!" Max was running away as fast as he can from a giant yellow gorilla like beast. It was 10 feet tall, and a visible corrupted gem was on its face. Max wanted to fight, but he was designated as bait for the gem. He didn't think flipping off the beast would make it so angry, but I guess yelling profanities at it didn't help.

"Where are you guys!? Hurry before this dirty ape rips my head off!"

He soon ran into a dead end, a cliff in front of him, and a corrupted gem barreling toward him at full speed.

"Why do I always get into these situations?"

Max pulled out his shotgun and aimed at the beast. Before he could fire though, a giant shadow appears behind. He looks and sees a massive hand made of water rising from the ocean under the cliff. He looked with wide eyes as the hand smashed the beast, making it poof back into just a gem.

"What the f-" He's interrupted by someone clearing her throat. It was a another gem being...she was blue with a look in her eyes that spoke of a taxing history. He didn't understand it, but he felt Obsidian inside him, anger welling inside her, and all of it directed to the blue gem. Before either of them could speak, a certain voice yells out that made them both perk up.

"Lapis! Max!" Steven came running with the Crystal Gems.

"Lapis! It's great to see you again, but what are you doing here?"

"Peridot told me to get you, she didn't give me the details, just said it's extremely important...so who's your friend?" Lapis looked at Max cautiously. It seems her strange aggression toward him was similar to Obsidian's.

"Oh that's Max, he's a human who mixed with a gem named Obsidian."

"That's the short and sweet version, but yeah I guess that's it. By the way, where were you four? I was running from the ape the whole time!"

"Sorry, we tried following you but the gem's rampage made so much rubble that we could barely catch up."

Max rolled his eyes but smiled, he couldn't stay mad at them.

"So it's nice to meet you Lapis, a friend of Steven is...an acquaintance of mine."

"Hmm…" She just stared at Max before turning to Steven with a smile. "So can you come? I can fly you to the barn."

"Sure! We can bring Max too, I wanted to show him the barn too!"

Lapis didn't look eager to hang out with Max, but couldn't say no to Steven.

"Okay...but i'm not carrying him"

"That's okay, I'm faster on foot anyways." The tension between the two of them was so thick, you needed a chainsaw to cut it, yet Steven was completely oblivious.

"Great! Let's go!"

After helping the gems get the corrupted gem bubbled, Max, Lapis, and Steven made their way to the barn safely. There Max can see a short, panicky looking green gem with a yellow triangle of hair, pacing back and forth.

"By basic deduction, I'm guessing this is Peridot?"

"Yeah! Don't worry, she's really nice...once you get to know her." The trio walked toward Peridot, snapping her out of her trance.

"Lapis! You brought Steven! Perfect, now I can…" She stared at Max with a face that can only be described as a mixture of fear and the face a cat makes when it doesn't like someone they first meet. "What is this human doing here?"

"Oh this is my half bro, Max!"

"Half...bro?"

"He's half human and half gem, kinda like me, just not with his mom inside him."

"Interesting." She walks up to Max curiously….and kicks him in the shin.

"Ow! You little gremlin, if you weren't Steven's friend I'd incinerate you!"

"Oh please, humans have no abilities over fire."

"Obsidian dwells within me, I have all the properties of a volcano and more." He grins and puffs his cheeks before blowing a puff of white smoke in Peridot's face, making her cough comically.

"Come on, no need to fight." Steven once again tries to be the angelic diplomat of the group.

"Fine, I have something important to show you anyways! I have improved my charts of information involving the characters of Camp Pining Hearts!" Peridot smiled while Max looked at her with a look of disbelief. "You brought Steven all the way here to show him your shipping chart?...well I've heard of worse reasons."

"Don't worry Max, we can hang out afterwards."

"Hurry Steven! Statistics wait for no one!" Peridot pulls Steven into the barn, leaving Max and Lapis alone.

"So what's your story?"

"...trapped in a mirror, tried to go home, made a prisoner, fused with someone to keep them underwater, split up and now living with her." She points to Peridot who is running around trying to explain something to a dumbfounded Steven.

"Quite a history….look I know we obviously don't like each other, but maybe you can help me out. I've only had 50 years of experience as a gem, which is relatively short to you. Any reason why you and Obsidian have such animosity."

"It's simple, Lapis Lazulis and Obsidians don't mix well. They are opposites who want nothing to do with each other."

"I see...a shame, I wanted to try fighting you, you seem strong. But I don't want to fight if hatred is fueling me. Maybe my human side can be a bit of a barrier, I want us to have a more positive relationship. Last thing I want is to make an enemy...plus I don't wanna make Steven sad."

"...I guess we can try...for Steven."

"Hehehe, was is it with that kid and making so many friends that care for him?"

Lapis just shrugs. The two don't converse much, they mostly just lay around and feel like garbage. It was surprisingly very therapeutic. She showed him around the barn, Peridot's meepmorps, and the various items they have. After a couple of hours, Steven was let free from Peridot's rantings.

"Now I'm sure that was a lot. To take in, but I assure you it all makes sense."

"Uh, sure." Steven looked ready to pass out.

"...can we stay over Lapis? Steven looks tired and it's kinda late."

"Sure Max, we got some human beds here." She smiles softly as she helps Steven into bed.

"Thanks" He smiles happily at her, glad that she and Obsidian weren't hostile anymore. He gets into bed and let's his eyes close. Maybe water and fire don't have to be enemies after all.

Author's note: Hey everybody, just wanted to say it's awesome that so many of you are following and favoriting my story. I honestly wasn't expecting anyone to enjoy it, so I've decided to take some suggestions for chapters. I probably won't do everyone's ideas, but this way we can help keep chapters coming while I think of ideas for the main story to progress. Thank you and I hope you have a good Labor Day.


	10. Barn Shenanigans

Author's note: extra special thanks for FanficLovingPerson and halitelp for being one of the first people to review, favorite, and follow my story.

After sleeping in the barn, Max was definitely surprised when he woke up to a cute green gremlin poking his forehead. So surprised that he accidentally yelled out and woke up Steven.

"W-what's going on?! Is homeworld attacking?!"

"No your green friend was poking me and was like an inch from my face."

Peridot was currently hiding behind a slightly amused Lapis.

"Hehehe, is that all? Well at least it helped me wake up."

Steven and Lapis decided to spend the day together to catch up and rekindle some "Beach Summer Fun Buddies" spirit, whatever that meant. This left Max and Peridot alone and...h-hey wait!

Alone are me, the lovable Peridot, and this strange human. Instead of a hybrid like Steven, it seems to have assimilated a gem within him. Further research is needed, gah!

Hey this is my story, I'm telling it!...ahem, sorry about that.

Max didn't really know how to interact with Peridot, she seemed very creative, and possibly passionate, but she's just the kind of person, or gem, that easily ticks people off.

"So um. How do you know Steven?"

I responded appropriately.

It's appropriate to hiss at someone?

…..yes

Anyways, we didn't start off well. I decided to try and watch Camp Pining Hearts, just to see what made her so interested in it.

Camp Pining Hearts is a very complex and dramatic show, with very interesting subtext and-

It was basically a cheesy high school romance story taking place at a camp. I did not really enjoy the show, but it was very interesting to see how Peridot gained so much information from one episode and put it into a chart that really drawer my scientific interests.

While it disturbs me how you cannot enjoy a masterpiece such as Camp Pining Hearts, I will forgive you since you were listening and taking part in my extremely intellectual findings.

Right, now give me back the microphone, you're making me lose track of whether to stay first person or third person.

So the bond between Max and Peridot was iffy, but it wasn't too bad...at least not until a prank went wrong.

Max decided to let Peridot study his body and obsidian hand, but after she went too far and tried to inspect an area down south, Max decided to get back at her.

"Hey little miss Handsy, I got a better idea. Instead of going to m rated territory. I have something better to show you.

"What do you mean?"

"Look closely at my left hand." He puts his hand on the desk, in close view for Peridot. Then he shapeshifts his gem hand into a scythe. With a quick slice, his removes his left hand.

Peridot only stared for a solid 10 seconds before screaming loudly in fear.

"Oh no, my hand is gone." Max just chuckles while Peridot keeps screaming.

"Now this is the best part." He grabs the sliced off hand and puts it back on his arm like it never happened.

"H-huh? But how is that possible?"

"Well, gem bodies are just an astral projection right? Well with enough focus, I can make it so a part of my body is made of light, just like the projection. The drawback is that, if I were to do it for my whole body, I'd be drained of all energy."

"I-interesting."

After that, Max and Peridot decided to do calmer activities, Peridot sharing her vast intellect with machinery, and Max sharing some of the technological advances of humans, and his own creations.

Lapis soon flew back to the sight of the two nerds talking about his cloak.

"An inter dimensional portal in something so light and thin, yet comfortable and fashionable? I must say I'm impressed, but I bet I could easily make something far better."

"Just remember to show it to me when you're done."

"...I leave for one day, and now the nerds are multiplying."

"Hehehe, awe is someone jealous?" Max teases her playfully, and Lapis just sticks her tongue out at him.

"Well this was fun, I'm guess I got Steven is back home?"

"Yep"

"Perfect. I'll make sure to come visit sometime. I'll see you two later."

"Wow, thanks."

"Don't lie, you're already sad I'm leaving." Peridot just hisses at him. Max just rolls his eyes as he makes his way back to the Crystal Gems.


	11. Mystery at the Mayor's Mansion

For a while, things seemed pretty calm. Maxwell got to take part in some missions with the gems, fortunately not as bait. Yet despite his accomplishments, the gems were still not ready to let Steven train with him. He never asked, but Max knew the gems didn't fully trust him. Was it Obsidian's corruption? He wasn't sure, but he was determined to try and gain their trust. Until then, he would just secretly show Steven some small tricks he can do, and maybe educate him a bit more on the real world.

During one of their talks though, Greg and Connie came to the front of the house and were calling out to Steven.

"And that is why you never- what is that noise?" Max and Steven go out the front door to see Greg holding up a flyer.

"Steven! We were invited to a party at the Mayor's new mansion!" Connie explained excitedly. Steven and Greg definitely looked excited, but Max was a bit confused?

"A new mansion? Why is tax money going into a mansion?"

"Oh the mansion is to help house the important visitors from Empire City. If Mayor Dewey and all the citizens make a good impression, Beach City could be given a huge grant of money! I could probably get a new car wash?"

"Maybe remodel the library!"

"Or maybe funland can get bigger and better!"

Everyone was absolutely ecstatic, but Max couldn't help but be unable to shake away a bad feeling.

"So who are invited? Is there a specific list?"

"Nope, everyone in Beach City can come."

"Including the gems?"

Greg's smile turned to shock as he remembered that Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were prone to bringing danger around them. "Uh oh."

Yet Steven just smiled wide. "It'll be okay! It's a party, we'll all have a fun time, then we'll get the money, and everybody wins!"

"That's the spirit, tell you what Greg, I'll inform the gems about it, and make sure everything is danger proof.

"That's...actually a real relief to hear. We'll take Steven to get him ready for the party, and we'll meet at the party at 6:00."

"Sounds perfect."

For the next few hours, everybody was getting ready for the big shindig at the mansion. Fortunately this was enough time for Max to explain the situation to the gems and help them get ready while making sure every possible problem was accounted for.

It wasn't too long before it was 6:00 and everyone was at the front of the mansion. Right on time, Mayor Dewey opens the doors and invites everybody in.

"Welcome beloved citizens of Beach City! Please feel free to enjoy yourself, but remember to use the coasters."

Everyone rushed into the mansion, enjoying themselves and having a grand time.

Max couldn't help but act like an usher, making sure everything was fine, even being mindful when people were using plastic knifes.

"I don't know what you and Greg were so worried about everything seems to be just fine." Amethyst commented as she drank some punch.

"Maybe...but I can't shake away this feeling…"

He looks and sees Mr. Smiley getting some punch, right next to one of the Empire City visitors, a rather old man. The senior citizen tried to pour some punch into his cup, but ended up pouring it on Mr. Smiley's shirt.

"Oh I'm sorry sonny." Mr. Smiley was definitely forcing a smile, but waved it off.

"T-that's okay. It's just punch."

The senior tried to get more punch, but ended up spilling the whole bowl all over Mr. Smiley's pants. Everyone gasped and stared at the scene, Mr. smiley looked ready to snap.

"Y-you senile geezer, I-I'm gonna-" He was cut off as the lights flicker, shutting of for a good 10 seconds. Warning sirens were going off in Max's head, every instinct in his body telling him something was wrong. Once the lights come back on, the scene before them was something nobody ever thought would happen in Beach City. Sure there were gem attacks, but no one ever really got hurt. But this was something different. Mr. Smiley lost his smile as he looked at the senior citizen on the floor.

The old man was decapitated...his head off his body and bleeding all over the floor.

A scream was heard, everyone started panicking. People were crying, some tried to leave the mansion, but the doors were locked. Buck Dewey grabs a chair and tries to break open a window, but the chair breaks instead.

"What's going on!?"

"Why are we trapped?"

"Who killed this man."

At the last question, some eyes turned to Mr. Smiley, considering he was the closest on to the old man before the lights turned off.

"W-wait! Sure I was mad, b-but I would never kill someone!"

Accusations were thrown around, people questioning each other, fear controlling their minds.

A bang was heard and everyone looks toward Max, who shot his pistol into the air.

"Everyone shut up and listen. I'm afraid to say it, but this man has been murdered. We also appear to be trapped in this mansion. Now with that out of the way, I will tell you all this, this is not a simple killing. Someone planned this, to put all of the citizens of Beach City here and trap us, possibly planning to kill us all. But they made one mistake, they kept me in here. I am Maxwell Ignitus, an ally of the Crystal Gems. I will make sure the rest of you good people will get out of here safely, but before we do that. We must find out who the murderer is. No one can be ruled out. The lights were out for 10 seconds, which is actually a lot of time for the murder to take place, and for the killer to blend into the crowd. This will not be easy, but with all of your cooperation, I promise to save everyone!"

After Max's speech, Max organized everyone to be separated safely, and watched over all of the Crystal Gems. Max sighed sadly, thinking this place was safe from the evil of the world...how wrong he was.

"I have to say, I'm impressed with how you took control of the situation." Garnet looked at Max, standing next to him.

"I wasn't lying when I said I would protect everyone. I've seen enough terrible things, I do not want this great city to be hurt."

"I understand...what have you found out so far?"

"Well, the old man was Executive Bert Sherman. He was 65 years old, pretty old, but he was healthy. The decapitation wasn't simple, according to the tears to the flesh, the weapon used was a serrated machete. I questioned the mayor, and he said the mansion was given plexiglass windows, so no bullets can break through. So there is no easy way to break out. We know the killer couldn't have escaped through the windows or doors. So the killer is here with us, but we don't know who. I do not wish to question anyone, I want to believe in everyone."

"...I understand, but please don't hesitate to talk to me, Pearl, or Amethyst."

"Okay, where's Steven?"

"Don't worry, he's with Greg and the other families, Pearl is watching over them."

Max nods as he starts looking around, trying to find any useful evidence. As he searches the area though, Steven walks up to him.

"Hey buddy, you holding up well?"

"I-I guess...it's just, I wanna thank you for making sure everyone is safe. I thought things would get worse."

"Don't worry Steven, we just gotta…."

"What's wrong?"

"...wind…" Max looks around, and ignites one finger, seeing it seem to sway in one direction. He follows where the fire is going and looks at a big portrait of Mayor Dewey. "Dewey, when did you put up these portraits?"

"Oh um, they went up immediately."

"Is that so?" Max rips down the portrait, revealing a large gap in the wall, a hidden entrance that goes deeper into the mansion.

"What do we have here? The killer possibly escaped through here."

Amethyst summoned her whip and walked to the entrance. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get em!"

"No Amethyst, if we all go, then the people will we left vulnerable. You all need to stay here." Despite saying this, Steven ran up to him, a determined look on his face."

"At least let me come."

"Absolutely not, I will not risk your life."

"But I can help! I have shield powers and healing spit."

Greg comes up and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Look Steven, this is too dangerous, I can't risk you getting hurt." Steven resigns and stays back.

"I'll make it back, stay safe everyone." Max sighs as he walks into the dark corridor, using the fire on his hand as his only light.

Max traversed the strange hidden hallway carefully, intent to find some clues. As he searches he finds small lights coming into the hallway. He looks through these little holes to see that the killer could see everyone from here.

"Hmm, why go through all of this to kill someone?"

A shadowy figure walks quietly behind, before it could get close though, Max turns around and points his shotgun at the figure and shines his light at it….showing it to just be Steven.

"Jesus Christ, Steven! I almost shot you! What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't stay behind, I had to help you...who's Jesus?"

"Don't worry about it, how did you get here?"

"I have my ways~"

"You bribed Amethyst, didn't you?"

"...maybe…"

"Whatever, I'm taking you back."

"Aw man." Just as Max was about to lead Steven back to the main room, he saw something glimmer and he pushes Steven out of the way, just for a machete to plunge into the wall.

"The killer!" Max aimed his gun as the killer ran away. He fired and hit it's shoulder, but the shadowy killer kept running. Max and Steven followed as fast as they can, but the killer seems to have escaped.

"We lost them!"

"We better go back." Max sighs as he and Steven go back to the main room, and everyone looks to Max expectantly.

Pearl and Greg run up to Steven. "Steven! How could you run after Max in such a dangerous place? You're grounded from TV for the next 1000 years!"

"It's okay Pearl, if it wasn't for Steven, I wouldn't have found the clue I needed."

"Huh?" Pearl looks at Max as he smirks and grabs something off of Steven. A pin that says Vote for Dewey.

"Now what was this doing in the corridor? Huh Dewey?"

Everyone looks at Mayor Dewey accusingly, making him sweat on the spot.

"N-now that can't be right, I'm not the killer!"

"But in a way it makes sense. By killing the Executive, you hoped to worm your way into Empire City by using fake sympathy for his death, and get the grant for the city."

"P-please! I'm no killer!"

"Sorry Dewey, but you're suspect #1." Max walked over to Dewey to apprehend him, but then the lights flicker. There shouldn't have been anytime. In just a few seconds Max made his flames brighter, but it was too late.

Mayor Dewey, and in his chest was a machete.

"NO!" It was Buck, running to his dad's side.

"B-but how? There was no time, I was right here."

Whispers can be heard, everyone accusing Max. He was the one with so many weapons, and he was the least trusted person in Beach City, only being here for about a month. Max couldn't believe it, his will wavering as the people glowered at him.

"Everybody stop!" Steven stands in front of Max. "Max is not the killer, he's one of my best friends, he's been such a kind guy, he's helped everyone and tries to keep you safe. He even risks his life to find the killer."

He wasn't alone though, the gems backed up Steven, showing their support in protecting Max. Soon everyone was silent, still scared of the possible killer.

"But who else can be the killer? There are no clues, except for…"

Max looks at the dead bodies carefully. He walks closer to Buck and gently pushes him off. "This isn't your dad."

"What are you talking about?"

"Trust me." Max takes out his gun and fires out the dead body, only for the lights to flicker rapidly. Both corpses disappeared.

"What's going on!?"

"There was never an Executive, just some imposter!" No one was dead, it was a relief to say that, but there was definitely someone trying to hurt everyone.

"Uh, M-max." Greg stutters as he and everyone else disperses...there were two Steven's, looking completely identical.

"Huh?" They even spoke in sync. "What? No wait, I'm the real Steven! No I am! Stop copying me!"

No one knew what to do, everyone was just in stunned silence. It wasn't until Max stepped up and reloaded his shotgun, that everyone murmured worriedly.

"Steven is a good kid, you won't be able to copy him so easily. Here are some questions. Question one, what is Steven's favorite treat?"

"Cookie Cat!" They responded simultaneously.

"Question two, what's the name of the Crystal Gems?"

"Easy, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, and Steven!"

"Question three,...who is Rose Quartz?"

"My mom." Says one Steven, but the other one has a sad and conflicted look. "Well, she turned into me, or is me...I'm not so sure lately."

"Well there's your answer." Max aims at the Steven who answered first and fires, blowing it's head clean off...only for the body and head to melt and reveal a swarm of miniature robots. They currently are too broken to work, but it seems that they work together to look exactly like a person.

With some investigating, the real Mayor Dewey and Executive were found. They were tied up in the basement of the mansion. As thanks for being saved, the Executive gives the grant to Beach City. Everyone seemed so happy, but Max wasn't satisfied. Someone sent those swarm bots, as he's decided to call them, to attack everyone. Max knew there was a new enemy, and he wasn't going to lose.

Author's note: wow this took long! I hope you all enjoy this. Still wanna let you all know I'll still take suggestions until I say otherwise. Sorry if this seems rushed, until next time!


	12. Feels, Fusions, and Funks

….It's been over a week ever since the party at the Mayor's mansion. Some police and investigators came to find any evidence to help them find the culprit, but somehow there was absolutely nothing. The swarm bots had no fingerprints, yet were taken to a lab for further studies. Everyone was safe...but Maxwell couldn't stop worrying. He thought of how so many lives were at stake, and he almost failed. In a flash, everyone was against him, and if it wasn't for Steven and the gems, he may have been arrested or worse. Max helped in the search, looking top to bottom of the mansion for any clues, yet there was nothing.

"... uh Max?"

"Huh?" Max shakes his head as he gets up, apparently he overworked himself and fell asleep, but Steven carried him home.

"Oh uh, hey Steven, sorry about that."

"It's okay, but you shouldn't be working yourself so hard, it's not healthy."

"Look, I know Steven, but I can't just stop, this psycho threatened everyone, including you. I can't sit back and just risk letting whoever this person is, attack any more innocent people." Max had this tired scared look in his eyes as he looked over Beach City. He flinched when he felt Steven hug his side. "How can you still be so nice to me...I pulled a gun on you."

"It's because I know you wouldn't hurt me...you're my friend.

"...Steven…" He sighed and smiled. "Okay...I'll stop. I won't get anywhere if I keep this up. For now, we should get back to our regular routine. How are you so good at making people feel better?"

"It's just one of my 'special skills~'"

"Pfft, your special skill is being the best doofus ever." He and Steven relax for most of the day, watching TV, until this catchy car commercial comes on, with some good music.

"Wow, so much musical talent for cars?...Is that Smiley singing?" Max comments but then looks to Steven who started dancing. Max rolls his eyes but gets up and dances as well. Eventually the two seemed to get a rhythm, Steven's gem glowing as they get more in sync. The two had a light growing between them, but then it suddenly dimmed as Max stopped dancing and clutched his head in pain. The light flashed and knocked them both onto the floor.

"Ugh, whoa! We were gonna fuse! We gotta try again!" Steven was so excited until he looked at Max and saw him panting as if he were in pain. His obsidian hand growing sharper and wild, until Max finally got control again. "W-what's going on?"

"I-I don't know….I think Obsidian was trying to warn us. While she is safe in my body, the fusion would probably bring out her corruption again, and maybe infect you."

"Oh...so we can't fuse?"

"I guess not, not until I figure things out with Obsidian." To be honest though, Max knew they could fuse...but their fusion may be something dangerous.

"Aw man, I was so excited."

"It'll be okay Steven, I'm sure we can-" He was cut off as he tried to get up, but his legs were too wobbly and caused him to fall and his his forehead on the TV

"Oh SON OF A-"

While Max currently swears like a sailor, picture instead of cute puppies running around a field.

Max was panting after his cursing fit, but then his eyes widen as he looks at a baffled Steven.

"What's a-"

"No no NO! I'm so sorry, what I said wasn't appropriate."

"What do you mean?"

"Um...what I said were bad words."

"OH!"

"Yeah sorry, we need to erase those words from your mind before you start using them.

"But how? Do you have a crazy anti bad word ray gun?"

"Have you been looking through my blueprints? Nevermind, that's besides the point. What I'm gonna teach you are 'replacement bad words'"

"Ooo, so I won't get in trouble using them?'

"Hopefully no. Let's begin, first I just need to get myself angry...okay done. Aw Mahogany table!"

"Hehehe."

"Carrot cake! Cadillac convertible!"

"Let me try! Oh funky flow!"

"Gosh dang, doodles!"

"Aw crab! Moss!"

"Oh, Squirtle."

"Lion Lickers!"

"Streetcar named Desire."

"Hehehehe, what?" The two of them were having too much fun with this.

"Coffee pot!"

"Jellyfish!" The two hear a cough and see Garnet standing there along with Amethyst who was laughing her butt off and Pearl trying to look stern and not laugh.

"...language." Garnet said in a neutral but slightly motherly tone.

"Sorry Garnet." The two replied simultaneously.


	13. Hints of Insanity

Things seemed to be all around happier, Max and Steven spent their time, playing in Funland or sharing stories and knowledge. The bond between them seems to be growing more with every interaction between them. Yet...there still was something that seemed to hinder their growing brotherhood.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, they each hold dark insecurities and fears that harms them everyday...it's so easy to pretend the pain doesn't exist...but you can only smile for so long.

"Steven check me out!" He yells out as he jumps off the cliff on the temple and into the beach.

"Yeah! That was awesome!" Steven chuckles as he enjoys watching Max swim around like a dolphin, even making a very good dolphin sound.

"Hehehe" He soon comes out of the water, shivering a bit from the cold salty water.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I warm up fast." He sits down with Steven, enjoying the serene sounds of the ocean on this beautiful day. (Apologies to anyone reading this on a not so beautiful day)

"Um….Max, I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure, you can ask me anything."

"Well, I know you've been around for a while. You said you're around 70 years old...s-so um...do you miss your family? Or where you came from?"

"Hmm...interesting question. I'm gonna be honest, I can't remember much about my family or the neighborhood I grew up in. I think I subconsciously tried to forget about it because everyone there didn't encourage my way of thinking. My wish to be a hero, was always spit on. Once I left, I never looked back…"

"Wow...well, I'm glad we can make you feel better here. You're always welcome to stay and be the hero you wanna be!"

"That means a lot Steven." The two enjoyed the rest of the day before it got dark and they went to bed.

Although...Steven couldn't shake away the feeling that Max needed help. He found it weird that Max had no family that cared for him. He wanted to do something...but unfortunately he fell asleep before he can think of anything. As he fell asleep though, his gem glowed slightly as he went to dreamland.

"...hello?" Steven was in a dark room, with only a door in a spotlight. Curiously he opened the door and peaked inside. *cue "do you believe in magic" in the background*

"Wow!" He sees a land with beautiful fields, clear oceans, and a sunny sky. "This place is great!"

"Well I'm glad you like it." ...wait who said that?

Steven looks to his right to see someone sitting on a tree stump. He looked exactly like Max...but he had glasses, and was entirely blue, almost like Lapis.

"Max?"

"Close, I'm his intellectual side. You're currently in his mindscape, or dream world if you prefer."

"Really!? Wow, this is just what I needed to do, now I can find out how to help Max!"

"No."

"...what do you mean no?"

"I mean, I know you're a good kid, but interfering with Max's mind and snooping through his mind isn't the right thing to do. You need to- oh for the sake of Benjamin Franklin." He pulls Steven out of the way as another Max drove by them in a golf cart, close to running them both over. This Max was all orange and screaming wildly at the top of his lungs.

"That ignoramus is going to ruin everything. You stay here Steven, I'll deal with this."

As the blue Max runs after the orange one, Steven can't help himself as he explores more of the place, finding many different versions of Max and his emotions. While exploring, he finds a big building that looks like a night club. At the front was a sign saying "Comedy club today! Bring in your best jokes!"

"This sounds fun, I wonder what jokes Max knows." Steven walks in, seeing many different colored Maxes laughing their butts off as a Yellow Max was at the mic.

"Okay. So a patient was sent to the hospital for surgery. When he woke up he said, 'Doctor! I can't feel my legs!' and the doctor said 'I know! I amputated your arms!'

Everyone absolutely lost it, laughing so hard. The infectious laughter and the joke got to Steven as well.

"This seems really fun, is there anywhere I can sit."

"Oh hey everybody look, it's Steven Universe! It's great to have guest like you in our humble comedy club." Everyone cheers and brings out a seat and table for him, along with some complimentary apple juice.

"I hope you enjoy yourself." The yellow Max leaves the stage and a light orange Max comes up. "Okay this one is a bit long, so stay with me." Everyone listens closely. "So a gay guy-" He's interrupted as one guy from the audience audibly fakes snoring. Everyone cracks up, some telling him to "shut up."

"Pfft, everyone's a comedian. Okay, so a gay guy walks into a gay bar and walks to the bartender. He says, "Whose dick do I gotta suck to suck a dick around here?"

A few laugh hard but others groan. A red one gets his complimentary heckling tomato and throws it at the Max on stage. "Get off the stage! We gotta kid here!" Other's join, some aiming rocket launchers and blasting the joke teller off the stage. Steven chuckles a bit uncomfortably, but understands that the mind is very crazy and random, especially with so many emotions.

A very dark blue and depressed looking Max walks up onto the stage. Steven looked at him a bit concerned, but everyone was interested to see what he would do.

"So you guys wanna hear a joke right?"

"Yeah that's why we're here."

"Okay...well here's a joke...my life." He then pulls out a handgun and puts it to the side of his head, killing himself in the blink of an eye. Steven was horrified, but all of the Maxes were laughing incredibly hard, giving a standing ovation. The blue Max's wound seems to heal until it looked like it never existed. He gets up and sighs before getting off the stage and leaving the comedy club. Steven follows after him worriedly.

"Hey wait! Max!" Steven calls out. The blue Max looks at Steven and sighs.

"Oh hey Steven. Sorry you had to see that."

"W-what happened up there?"

"Well, I'm the suicidal and depressed side of Max. I'm not so evident in him with how happy he's become, but I still exist. I am every fantasy he has of killing himself, or disappearing from existence." He had this sad look to his face, as if he cried for years, and now he doesn't have any more years.

"..." He didn't know what to say, all he did was hug the sad incarnation. "I'm here...I'm your friend."

"..." He gives a sad chuckle and tussles Steven's hair. "Don't worry...I've been here ever since Max was a kid...so much sadness...but it's thanks to you, Obsidian, and everyone else that Max has grown so happy." He hugs Steven and they sit there for a solid minute before Steven goes to explore more. He soon comes across an area where everything is growing darker. Almost like all the light is sucked into his large vortex. He felt his own body getting drawn to it. He reached out with his hand, only for the intelligent Max to grab Steven and pull him away.

"Gah! M-max!"

"I told you to stay put...I didn't want you to see this place."

"W-what is it?"

"...it's the crack in Max's sanity. At first it was so small, but it's grown more and more. It was dangerous at first, but now it's something we live with. We even managed to make good use of it and hide the more dangerous emotions of personalities."

"Dangerous?"

"Well, not exclusively dangerous. We've hidden his fears, his sins, his lust, and so much more….."

"But, isn't it still needed? You can't put away the bad stuff."

"You're right, it's not healthy to hide it, so we let some of them be free as he dreams. I'm sure you already know one...his suicidal side."

"..."

"I'm glad you helped him, but you can only do so much...the best you can do is be there for him while he is awake.

"Okay...i'll do it."

"Good, now it's time you leave." He pulls out a gun and fires at Steven, immediately making him wake up in bed. Steven looks to see Max still asleep despite the morning sun.

"...I promise to be here for you."


	14. Killer Revealed

The Crystal gems...Steven Universe...Maxwell Ignitus… just a weak group of fools.

Near a desolate factory far away from Beach City, or any real signs of life, was a junkyard filled with abandoned and rusty scraps of metal. A shadowy figure lives in this dilapidated area, and even calls it home. There, the metal kept it alive. With the many scraps, it whispers "Don't worry, you won't be alone any longer...you will be created into something wonderful." With a terrifying grin, it brings the metal to the factory. With a clap of it's hands, the factory comes back to life, machines activating and bending to the will of the being. It chuckles happily while it clutches a strange sickly green gemstone.

"GIVE ME BACK MY SANDWICH LION!" Max yells as he runs after a certain pink lion who stole his chocolate ice cream sandwich.

"That is Max food, not Lion food! Amethyst, feel free to help!" Amethyst just casually eats popcorn as Max struggles to catch the thieving magical beast. Steven soon comes by and sits next to Amethyst.

"What's going on?"

"Oh Lion just took Max's snack when he wasn't looking."

"Lion!" He pouts at the pink thief, albeit does find it funny how Max keeps coming close to catching Lion, only for Lion to just roar and teleport.

"MY SANDWICH! It was so young...I bet it was delicious." Max lays on the ground in over exaggerated disappointment.

"It'll be alright Max." Steven comes over and pats his head.

"Yeah I guess, I was so distracted by this letter I got, Lion took the sandwich right from under me."

"You got a letter!? What does it say? Who is it from? Is it from a secret admirer?"

"That's the problem. It doesn't say anything, just an address."

"An address? Maybe a...secret address?"

"Who knows. I'm gonna search the address online and see what I can find, I don't wanna go over to the address and find it out that I went to the sahara desert."

With that said, Max types in the address on his phone...only to find it used to belong to a factory that specialized in cars, specifically vans.

"A van factory! Hey maybe if we go there, we can find stuff to modify my dad's van."

"Hehehe, maybe like find huge wheels, or an engine that can make it drive over 200 miles per hour."

"Yeah! I'll go ask my dad if he can drive us there, you help get everything ready. This can be like our first road trip with you, me, and dad!"

"Sounds like a plan." As Steven runs off to the car wash though, Max had a strange feeling about the factory. He talked about it with the gems, asking if there was ever any gem activity in the area. As far as they knew, there was nothing dangerous about the area. That relieved Max a bit, yet he still had a bad feeling. He wanted to tell Steven, but seeing him so excited, he just couldn't break it to the kid. Before he knew it, he was on the road with Steven and Greg. Only thing was, Steven accidentally fell asleep in the back, leaving just Max and greg to converse.

"So uh, Max right? How are you faring with all the gem stuff. I mean, being human at one moment and suddenly transforming? Sounds pretty scary." Greg asked to start up a conversation.

"Hehehe, yeah, it wasn't easy. I always had to wear gloves to hide what I am, learn how to control my powers. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally ripped opened a door because of how strong I became. But I didn't let it stop me, I continued to explore the world and gained better control.

"Well that's nice to know, and it really makes me to happy to have you as a friend of Steven.

"It's no problem, he's an amazing kid...and I bet you're an amazing dad too, considering you never left him."

"What? I could never leave Steven, he's my son."

"I'm just saying, I've seen so many fathers leave their families behind for lesser situations than what you went through. Your lover gave her life to give you such a healthy and wonderful child. You easily could have just left him with the gems, but you instead chose to stay there and be the best dad ever for him." Max almost didn't notice that he was making Greg cry.

"Oh uh, I'm sorry."

"N-no, it's okay. I just never had someone tell me that."

"I'm just speaking the truth...want me to take the wheel?"

"Y-yes please." Max smiled as they switched seats, letting Greg rest as Max drove to the address.

After about 3 hours, they finally made it to the factory. It seemed like no one could ever live in this place, let alone send a letter. The three looked around for any signs of life, yet found no one. Worst of all, most of the car parts found were either too outdated or too broken to be of any use.

"I guess we came here for nothing. Maybe someone put the wrong address on the letter?"

"Well, it's okay. Maybe we can still have fun, 'roadtrip part two, the trip back home!'"

"Hehehe, yeah, well let's- ah!" Max yelped as he felt something pick him up from behind. The father and son gasped as they saw something emerge from the heap of scrap metal. A mechanized suit with powerful looking metal arms and legs, and in the center was a front of a truck, with a man covered in plastic trash, head to toe, hiding his identity. The headlights shine an ominous green at Max before the man, switches a lever, making the robot smash Maxwell into the ground.

"Max!"

"Steven no! It's too dangerous!" Greg could only watch as Steven ran toward Max and put up his shield to protect them both from the monstrous machine.

"Maxwell Ignitus, YOU'RE ROADKILL!" The man laughed as he switched more levers and out from the robot's chest fired giant blocks of metal. Max reacted quickly and grabbed Steven, jumping out of range of the attack.

"Greg, take Steven and get out of here. Steven don't argue, I need you to call Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and tell them to get here as fast as they can. I'm not sure if I can beat this guy alone."

Steve wanted to protest but Greg grabbed his son and took him to the van.

"Hey! Reject transformer! The Universe family is not your enemy, I am!" With that said, Max pulls his shotgun and fires repeatedly at the metal titan. The man inside roars in anger and switches many levers and tries to smash Max. Maxwell was fortunately much faster, but his gun seemed useless. Putting his weapon away, he gets help from Obsidian and catches on fire, attacking the metal body parts.

"Your fire is useless, this suit is completely fireproof!"

"Well is it obsidian proof?" He jumps and elongates his obsidian hand until it becomes a sharp edge, and slices through one of the arms.

"Don't think you have won." With a chuckle, the mysterious man presses a button, and nanomachines pick up the am and instantly attach it to the body.

"Those nanobots….wait a minute."

"That's right, the dinner party was my doing. I wanted to make everyone turn against you, but it seems I must do things the old fashioned way." He presses another button and the nanomachines latch onto Max's body, all of them too fast and tiny to get rid of.

"Goodbye Ignitus." He presses another button and the nanobots glow brightly before detonating, exploding with enough power to destroy a two story house with ease.

"Well it seems that is the end." Just before he could walk away though in the mech, someone taps his shoulder. He turns to see a heavily damaged but still grinning Max inside the mech with him.

"How!? You should be dead!"

"It'll take more than a cheap trick to beat me. Now it's my turn to drive." As soon as he said that, he punches the man square in the face, and starts randomly flipping levers and pressing buttons.

The machine starts spinning, flashing it's lights, playing bad music, and doing the chicken dance.

Angrily the man pulls out his serrated machete and tries to slice up Max.

"Whoa! Easy there!"

"Shut up and bleed!" The man desperately slashed at Max, but fortunately Max was quite adept at fighting close quarters, easily dodging and delivering his own powerful strikes. The man yells out but then sees an ejector seat button he installed. With a grin he presses the button and launches Max out of the machine.

"Ow! My spleen!" He looks at the machine in a daze, only for a swift punch to send him flying. Max lands on a jutted out sharp piece of metal, making it pierce through his gut. Max groans from the pain, trying to get out but was stuck and bleeding fast. The machine walks closer to Max, the man inside chuckling as he goes to claim victory.

"Come on! We gotta hurry!" Steven yells as he leads the gems to the junkyard and they look for Max. Steven sees Max was pierced and the robot walking closer. He was about to get the others, but Max suddenly grins as he looks at the bot.

"Well...this can't be fun for you." He chuckles softly, his eyes having a strange gleam to them.

"What do you mean?"

"Simple, you're going to kill me in that robot suit, but won't get the real satisfaction." At that, the man stops in his tracks.

"It just isn't as satisfying as killing up close with your own hands. The coldness of their skin, their blood dripping with its beautiful crimson color, their face showing all of the little emotions. Oh it's so wonderful to savor it...right?~"

Max chuckles as the man walks out of the machine and brings out his machete.

"Right." The man grabs Max and raises his arm with the machete.

"Just one more thing, one thing you never let happen….never let me talk." Max gives a horrific grin before blowing ash and smoke out of his mouth and into the man's lungs.

"Gah! DIE!" Max only grins as the man tries to slash at him, but then starts coughing feverishly. "W-what did you do?!"

Max then began to laugh. It was small at first, but it grew louder. The man desperately struggled more and more. It shook the listeners to their core. Steven wanted to block it out so bad, but couldn't stop listening. They looked aghast as the man began to burn from the inside out. He pulls off the plastic bag covering his face, showing an already burned face that was beyond recognition. The man falls onto the ground, burned to ashes. Max's terrifying laughter going out through the whole junkyard. It was the laugh of pure insanity.


	15. Break

The laughter….it echoes everywhere.

After the fight, the gems found a corrupted gem was powering the machine, which explained why it was so strong and fast despite being so clunky looking. Worry was in Steven eyes as he looked over Max in bed. Despite what everyone was thinking, they brought him back to the temple so he can heal and rest. Steven used his healing spit, so the wound was closed, but his body still seemed to be in turmoil. It's been two days since the incident, and Max was still asleep. Steven could sometimes hear the gems arguing about his safety concerning Maxwell and his...method of defeating the strange man. It was impossible to decipher who the man was, he was far too burned to find any evidence on his body, and his home in the junkyard was literally just junk, nothing of particular interest. What worried them most though, was Max. To laugh while they kill somebody...it seemed wrong. Despite this, Steven continued to believe in him.

"...Max...I don't know if you can hear me…but I don't blame you for what you did….I-I mean, that guy was gonna kill you so you….killed him." Even Steven couldn't believe his own words. Yes he still cared for Max...but he grew to have fear of him too.

"...I know this though...you're my friend...please come back soon." Just as he was about to leave though, he felt something grab him and pull him close. Max was breathing heavily and quietly whispered in his ear.

"Stay away from the dreams."

After saying that, he immediately let go of Steven and passed out again. To say Steven was freaked out was an understatement. He was about to go tell the gems...but knew saying something could risk Max getting hurt. Steven went to contemplate what he said, trying to understand why Max wanted him away from the dream world. He could only assume that he was in some sort of danger. No matter how much his mind told him that this was a bad idea, he still went to bed and focused on traveling into Max's dreams.

"...I...I'm back!" Steven smiles as he came back to the colorful land.

"Wait, time to get serious, there has to be a way to help...oh i know! I need to find the smart side of Max, maybe he can help." With a goal in mind, Steven ran off. What he found was...strange to say the least. While everything still was colorful and filled with different Maxes… everything seemed, lifeless. Like as if it was all just a still portrait instead of a movie.

"Uh, hello?!" The Maxes just ignored him and continued to silently walk around, their eyes blank as if they were walking corpses.

"Please don't be zombies. Please don't want my dream brain." he carefully walked past them all, the Maxes uninterested in him or anything. Some even walking into trees, yet still walking.

Just like last time though, he found the edge of Max's mind, finding the swirling vortex where his darker thoughts and emotions existed.

"Max! Where are you!? I can help!" Steven calls out for him at the top of his lungs, only for someone to poke his shoulder. Steven looks behind to see another Max, this one was a dark purple, with a strange black whispy air around him.

"Well hello there Steven, it's nice to finally meet you. Who is this Max you keep calling out to?"

"Um, nice to meet you, but how do you not know Max, this is his brain, you're a Max too right?"

" 'A' Max? Oh you mean the other emotions. No I am nothing like them...I am the original. I am the side that 'Mr. Ignitus' chooses to hide."

"W-why would he hide you?"

"Well, he's just ashamed of who he truly is…" With a horrific smile, he starts laughing the same insane laugh that Max did before. The whole dream starts to rumble and crack, everything being destroyed.

"And now...I'm **free** HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Steven wakes up with a jolt, sweating and panting heavily as he looks around. He looks to see Max is not in bed...and the gems aren't around either. He then looked outside to a horrific sight. Beach City...burning in flames.

Max was wearing a gas mask as he burned everything and everyone who crossed his path. He just was humming to himself as he continues to burn everything. He didn't like being unable to smell the ash and burning flesh, but he thought it was fun to hide his identity as he killed everyone.

"MAXWELL!" He turns around and sees a furious Garnet, backed up with Pearl, Amethyst, Lapis, and a terrified Peridot hiding behind a boulder. Max just shrugs and pulls out his shotgun. Before he can fire though, Lapis summons two hands of water from the ocean to hold him down. Garnet walks over to Max and just says "Why?...why hurt them all?"

Max's voice was muffled by the mask. Garnet cautiously takes off his mask, revealing his terrifying smile and disfigured face. It was covered in scars and his eyes were a pool of madness.

"Oh thanks for removing that, now you can see my beautiful face for what it truly is"

"W-what is this?" Garnet asked in fear.

"Oh? Well it's simple." He evaporated the water arms with his heat and casually walks and talks to the gems. "You see, I didn't just leave my town. They hurt me so much, hurt me like this, and hid it all with just a surgically stitched on face. It looks exactly likely what I would look like if they never hurt me! The cruelty...they just hurt me over and over again, AND LEFT ME OUT OF THE FUN! So one day, my brain went 'crack' and I decided to play. First was my brother, I pushed him down the stairs and crushed his stupid head. Next was my sister, ripped her bitchy head off.

Then there was my dad, he tried to kill me by stabbing me in the chest, it didn't work. So I took the knife and stabbed him, 30 times to be exact. Then my mother. She was such a bore. She hurt me too, yet she begged for mercy. So I slit her fucking throat. The rest of the town I burned down, killing everyone who hurt me and never helped me. The Earth is covered with horrible people, so they are my targets for my fun game~"

"Maxwell...I'm sorry you were hurt, but that is no excuse to hurt innocent people! I never wanted to do this...but we-" Garnet was cut off as Max shot her point blank in the face.

"You don't know anything...now shut up and let's dance!" He cackles as he gave her a powerful kick, launching her into a building and making it collapse on top of her. He then looked to the other gems and smiles wider.

Steven rushed out of the house and ran to the city. He looked for any signs of life yet saw nothing. Bodies were burnt beyond recognition, so many wonderful place destroyed. He wanted to lay down and cry, but he couldn't stop. Steven soon found the gems facing off with Max. Everyone was absolutely exhausted, and looked ready to drop. Yet Max just looked like he was having fun.

"Well hello Steven! Glad you could come! Grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the show!" He laughs loudly until Garnet yelled and punched Max square in the face, his smile still there. He just backs up and shakes his head.

"Can't let a guy have fun huh?" He dodges blow after blow as Garnet desperately tried to pulverize him. He then jumps a few meters away. "Well come on! Give me everything you got!" Garnet fell for the bait and ran quickly toward Max, ready to throw a punch. Max loaded something into a revolver and aims at her. "Come on!" With a bang, the strange bullet fires and goes straight through Garnet. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Garnet slowly split apart into Ruby and Sapphire. Everyone was shocked and Steven looked at the ground to see the bullet. He picks it up and looks carefully, seeing it was actually a piece of obsidian. It trembles in Steven's hand and flies back to Max's hand.

"My special obsidian bullet, it can pierce anything with the right power behind it."

He smirks as he picks up Ruby and Sapphire with clouds of smoke. "Now for the main event! Which gem to shatter first? Hmm, oh I got an idea!" With a sadistic smile, he puts the obsidian bullet into his revolver and spins the barrel. "Russian Roulette! You two will aim the gym at each other's gems, and we'll let luck decide who dies!" He laughs maniacally as he puts the gun in Ruby's hand and forced her to aim at Sapphire's gem.

"No! P-please! Don't make me do this! I love her!"

"Sorry~ But I don't believe in love. PULL THE TRIGGER" Ruby fearfully looks to Sapphire, but her future vision was failing her, every possibility led to either of their deaths.

"Hurry and do it, or I'll kill her myself~ **FIRE!** " Ruby cries as she pulls the trigger.

*click*

"Lucky you! Sapphire doesn't die, now it's her turn!" He chuckles and gives the gun to Sapphire, forcing her to take aim.

"How does it feel? Knowing that your future vision is useless to save the one you love?" Sapphire's one eye was crying hard as she trembles in fear, not wanting to risk the possibility of killing her love. Before she can pull the trigger though.

"Stop it!" Steven yells at the top of his lungs, tears in his eyes.

"Oh Steven? Sorry but you shouldn't interrupt the show or I may have to kill you."

"I-I have a different game we can play."

"...a different game?"

"Yeah….if I can defeat you with one punch, you lose. If I don't, then you win."

"Hmm...interesting. Okay then, I'll play your game." With a chuckle he takes his gun back and flings Ruby and Sapphire to the other defeated gems.

"Now come on. Hit me with your best shot!"

"...I understand you were hurt...but being evil is not the way."

"Evil? Oh please. If I'm evil, then may God strike me where I stand." After saying that, a bolt of lightning hits him directly, but doesn't do anything.

"Hah! Nice try jack ass! Next time bring your A game!"

Steven shivers in fear but stands his ground. He kisses his fist and gives one strong punch to Max's forehead.

"Stronger than I expected, but still not enough to beat me." He was smiling but then loses it as he feels his wet forehead, seeing the saliva sparkle.

"...healing spit….clever boy." He then let's out a small chuckle, a more stable and happier laugh. "Well I can't just let you capture and detain me that easily." The others look at him confused until he pulls out a strange hourglass. "I remember that story you told me Steven, how you traveled back in time. So I swam through and got my own. I'll make sure this never happens. Unfortunately this means...I'll go back in the dreamworld...forgotten again."

With a sad smile, the hourglass glows and he teleports to the past. His first stop was to his child form. He undid his chains and set everything in order for him to begin killing. He teleports to a later time. A person who escaped the carnage of the village. That man would become the mysterious man who made the robot in revenge. Just as he was about to send the letter to bring Max to the junkyard, time traveling Max kills him on the spot so those events to inspire his insanity never happened. He then travels back to where Max was about to jump off the cliff in the beginning of his story. The time traveler changes his voice a bit and tells that Max not to jump. Traveling again before he could be seen. He see a younger Greg, who was dating Rose. Max puts a note for Greg, saying to never give up no matter what happens. With one last jump, he goes to the top of the temple during the new present time. Max never went insane, Beach City was safe, and everyone was happy. The time traveler lips at the hourglass and smashes it. He gives a sad chuckle as he looks at the sunset.

"...I-I don't want to leave.." He slowly turns into sand, disappearing from existence.

*Inside Max's dream*

The insane version of Max was in his room in the vortex, bored and bouncing a ball against the wall. He hears a knock and raises an eyebrow. "...don't come in, I'm in the shower~" The door opens anyways and there was Maxwell and Steven.

"...w-what are you two doing here?"

"Well, me and Steven had a strange dream and….well we wanted to give you this."

"It's a cake and present!" Steven smiles as he gives insane Max the cake and a present box.

"...enjoy." Max and Steven leave. Insane Max takes a bite of the cake, silently enjoying it. He opens the box to see little plushies of the Crystal gems, Steven, Max, and himself.

"..." He doesn't say anything, just has a small smile and hugs the cute toys.

author's note: wow, this was a doozy of a chapter. Sorry if it isn't that good, what can I say, I'm a amateur writer. I hope you all enjoy this. And don't feel shy to send suggestions for chapters.


	16. Travels

A terrible event was prevented, but a new adventure still awaits.

Maxwell and Steven were locked in a dangerous confrontation. An enemy that both struggle against.

"Don't do it! It's too dangerous!" Steven cried out.

"There's no other choice." Max said with a grim look on his face.

"...will you two quit being drama queens and hurry up?" Amethyst said while eating her sandwich, tired of their hesitation. The struggle was nothing more than cleaning the bathroom. It really wasn't a big deal, but the two of them didn't really wanna do it, out of principle that it's boring.

"Well excuse me. I don't see you ever cleaning the bathroom. You just say it looks fine and Pearl does it instead. But since she and Garnet are out on a mission, Steven and I are the only ones to clean it."

"Why not just wait for Pearl like I do then?"

"Well, we wanted to do this to be nice and help make things easier on her. She already cleans so much despite her dislike of messes."

"Whatever….oops." She pretends to accidentally drop a piece of salami from her sandwich onto the bathroom floor.

"That's disgusting. I am ashamed of you." Max glares at her, Amethyst just laughs and walks away.

"Ugh, let's do this." The two finally get started, cleaning up any dirt and grime in sight, intent on making it so clean that even Pearl would eat off the floor….okay maybe that level of cleanliness is impossible, but they still tried. After around an hour, they finally leave the bathroom sparkling.

"Finally! I thought we'd never finish." Max looks at their handiwork with a smile. Lion curiously walks onto the lemon scented tiled floor, sliding around comically.

"Hehehe, I believe we deserve a reward."

"I agree Steven." Max and Steven go and indulge in some pretzels and relax until they see the warp pad light up, and an exhausted Pearl and Garnet step out.

"You two sure seem tired, what happened?"

"It wasn't just one corrupted gem, turns out their was a whole pack! There were too many and they were so fast, we-"

"We had to retreat." Garnet finished for Pearl.

"A smart choice, now you got us for help." Max and Steven start flexing and posing, trying to show how they are proper candidates for the mission.

"Absolutely not! Until we come up with a proper plan, no one is allowed to use the warp pad and battle those beasts." Pearl and Garnet go to their rooms, leaving a disappointed Steven and slightly peeved Maxwell.

"Aw man, I wanted to help."

"Me too. I bet with you, me, and Lion, we'd beat the whole pack without any problems."

"You really think so?"

"I know we can." With a grin, he divulges a plan with Steven.

Hours pass, it was dark and everyone went to their proper quarters to rest...except for a certain duo. Steven puts a pillow under his blankets as a decoy. Max gets a certain treat to attract Lion as he gets closer to the warp pad.

"Here kitty, come get the Lion Licker." He chuckles as Lion walks in an almost trance like state after the yummy treat, despised by Steven.

"I still don't understand how he likes those."

"Whatever works, right? Okay, he's on the warp pad. Do it warp master."

"You got it dude!" Steven smiles as he warps the trio for their quest.

The three of them appear in a desolate forest, seemingly devoid of life. Lion didn't look happy about being tricked, but begrudgingly followed as Max and Steven cautiously looked for the corrupted gems. Soon they encounter a clearing in the woods and hide in the bushes, looking upon two wolf like creatures with a white form, speckled with blue spots. They looked almost like regular wolves, except for their singular red eyes and long slithery tongues.

"Okay, on the count of three, we'll jump out and surprise them."

"Oh, a surprise party? Is it their birthday?" One of the wolves growl, their sensitive ears hearing them. The closest one pounces on Maxwell and tries to tear him limb from limb.

"Gah! Steven! Help!"

"Uh, happy birthday?" The wolf uses it powerful jaw to fling Max away and growls at Steven.

Before it can attack though, Lion swipes at the wolf with his claws, launching the wolf into the air and making it poof.

"Ugh, no gem huh? These are probably just minions. Don't hold back!" But Max was too late as the second wolf howls loudly, attracting the attention of the others. It seems Pearl wasn't kidding about their numbers. There seemed to be more than twenty of them.

"Well, this got interesting." The trio get in formation as they get ready to fight. Maxwell pulls out a smoke bomb and throws it at the ground. The wolves dove for the middle, but using the smoke to his advantage, Max takes out a knife and pistol, using well coordinated combos of either stabbing one wolf, bashing another with the butt of the knife or gun, and firing at close range. Steven uses his shield to push the enemies back and bash their heads with it, sometimes expanding his bubble shield to drive the wolves away. Lion uses his size and roars to his advantage, taking out plenty of wolves, left and right. Just when it looked like they were winning, the ground rumbled as the alpha appeared. This one seemed to have the real gem in it's chest. It was twice the size of the other wolves, and with two mouths, both drooling and growling.

"Uh oh." Was all Max had time to say before the beast swiped at Max. He quickly jumped up and pulled out his shotgun firing directly at the beast's face, albeit doing little damage.

"No effect huh? Well try this on for size!" Max bursts into flames and rapidly beats down on the beast's back, causing it to howl in pain.

"I gotcha Max!" Steven gets under the wolf's belly and expands his bubble shield until it flips over the wolf. With the wolf dazed, Maxwell dives and gives one last punch to the beast, making it poof before he hit the ground. Steven finds the corrupted gem and bubbles it before sending it with the others.

"Told you we can do it, woohoo!" Max does a victory pose and Lion just rolls his eyes.

"Awesome, I can't wait to tell Pearl."

"She's gonna flip when we tell her." The trio head back to the warp pad. Steven and Max get on, but Lion seems cautious.

"Lion?"

"...Maybe he thinks there is food around. Well whatever, he can warp back to the temple when he wants to. Let's go Steven."

"Okay." Just as Steven activates the warp pad though, a strange shadow looms over the two. Seeing the threat, Lion roars at the figure. Strangely his roar intertwined with the warp pad, causing the ground to tremble and the light surrounding Max and Steven to waver.

"What's going on!?" In just a matter of moments, Steven and Max vanish in the blink of an eye. Lion is wide eyed and looks around, but then sees the figure get back up. Lion growls before pouncing.

Light...darkness...it looks as if space and time have no meaning. It is impossible to focus. Despite this, only one thought goes through Max's mind. "Where is the theme of Doctor Who when you need it most?" The duo looks on as they are carried by the vortex, a new destination awaiting them.

Author's note: Now begins the multi dimensional arc. Max and Steven will travel to different universes where the world of Steven Universe is altered in many different ways. I will have them travel to different worlds based on SU comics or fanfics. First they will travel to a world where everything has gone wrong. As far as I know, I plan to try and have the "Mom Swap AU", and the fanfic "A Leader's Call" by skydarius11. Feel free to send suggestions of what AU you would like to see in my little story. Please enjoy.


	17. The Bombs

"...ugh" Max shakes his head as he gets up from the ground.

"...Steven?...Lion?...anyone?" He looks around to see he's in some strange barren land. He's never seen it before..yet it has a strange familiarity to it.

"Max!" He looks to see Steven running toward him. Steven jumped and hugged him close. "W-where are we? What happened?!"

"I'm not sure...we were trying to warp, but then Lion roared at us. He can normally warp with his roars, so maybe the roar messed with the warp pad, teleporting us somewhere else."

"Well...that explains how we got here...but where is here?"

Max looks around with Steven, the wind blowing sand around them. They thought they were somewhere entirely new to them...but then they saw the familiar temple.

"W-what? But if that's the temple...where is beach city?!" Steven slowly starts panicking, but a Max puts a hand on his shoulder.

"...this isn't our Beach City...something is wrong."

"W-what do you mean?"

Max holds Steven close as they walk closer to the temple. They see the house itself was torn apart, almost completely ripped apart.

"What happened?" Max looks around for any evidence. Steven watches Max carefully, but then yells out.

"What's wrong!?"

"S-something touched me!"

Max pulls out his shotgun as he stays close to Steven.

"Show yourself!" Max yelled out to the air. He had his guard up until something disarmed him and put a gun to his head.

"Hello~" Max turned to see the one person he despised the most, himself.

"So another gem weapon huh? A clone an interesting idea, but you got it all wrong, I'm much more handsome."

"...Zero"

"...not a clone?" The two Maxes look at each other. It seems the new Max...is the insane form. His eye color was violet, his smile was wide and disturbing, and his skin was sickly and pale.

"Why did you say Zero?" Steven asked confused.

"It...it's a word that means a lot to me, and anyone who would somehow be me."

"Oh yes, Zero was the name we were called when we still lived with our family, who are now burned corpses!" Max...or Psycho Max gleefully remembered.

"Enough, you killed everyone didn't you!?" Original Max pulls out his own pistol and aims at P Max.

"Whoa there, as much fun as that sounds, I'm actually innocent."

"And why would I believe you?" His gun is knocked out of his hand by a dark pink shield, and ricochets back to...a heavily scarred Steven. This alternate Steven had dark circles under his eyes, a ripped shirt, and just an overall grim look.

"I won't let you hurt my friend." Said the Steven. Original Steven looks at Grim Steven surprised.

"...Friend?"

"Yep, me and Steven here are best buds~" P Max tussles G Steven's hair.

"But...why? What happened to the temple? What happened to Beach City!?"

"Well, take a seat dude. It seems you came from an alternate dimension, one where our predicament never happened."

"So...what happened?"

"...homeworld attacked. They chose to not use soldiers, they only sent in fleets of spaceships. It was all too fast for any of us to comprehend. Bombs were dropped onto the whole planet. Almost all of Earth was stripped of organic life, those that survived were forced to suffer this hell. The bombs created millions of these gem monsters. This planet is now a breeding ground for these beasts. As far as Steven and I know, we are the only survivors here."

"...t-that's horrible." Steven was on the verge of tears, almost unable to believe it. "W-what about my Dad? Connie? Lion? Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl?!"

Grim Steven just looks at O Steven sadly. "Dad and Connie...they're dead...it's somethings I've accepted long ago. Lion, he was almost dead, but I wouldn't let him...I held him close to me...in a way, I kinda absorbed him. Now, he can't die because he's me...as for the gems...come with me." He leads the group to the door to the gems' rooms. A weak pink glow comes from the door. They go in to see three chained up beings.

"What is this?"

"The bombs didn't kill them...I want to believe they are still there...but I still am never sure." He shows that the gems were...corrupted. They looked like just mindless animals, the way they moved. Pearl resembled a raptor, with soulless eyes and clawed feet. Amethyst was about the size of a small bear, struggling the most against the chains, her mouth drooling and showing her many rows of teeth. Garnet was the most calm though. Her whole body seemed black, as if she were just a glass figure stuck in a meditation pose. All that seemed alive was her unblinking eye that seemed to focus on whoever moved.

"...they are corrupted…" Grim Steven nods sadly as O Steven walked closer to them.

"Be careful, Amethyst almost bit off my arm, though I don't blame her, I must look delicious~"

"Shut up Max...me, y-you know what I mean."

Steven just ignored them as he gently pet each of them. They didn't seem to act negatively towards Steven, more like curious, gently sniffing him.

"...let's give them some time."

The two Maxes conversed, trying to figure out a way to get the two back to their proper dimension.

"So, Lion roared as you were warping? Fascinating. Well you're in luck! My Steven has Lion's powers after absorbing him. The problem though, I doubt we can control where you warp."

"Hmm, so what do we do? Keep jumping from dimension to dimension in hopes of getting home? There are an infinite number of universes!"

"Very true, but if you die, it's no skin off my back. Your best bet would be to find someone incredibly smart in another dimension to help you build a machine to control your warping."

"But who could possibly be that smart?"

"You said it yourself, infinite universe, there are bound to be a few with incredibly intellectual individuals."

Original Max sighs and accepts the situation he was dealt with. Soon enough, the Stevens come back.

"Great news! We can send you off to an alternate universe. You may get home, or you might find something else, but you're better off somewhere else instead of here."

Original Steven was silent until he took a step forward. "We're not leaving."

O Max looks at him with surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"I-I mean, we can't leave yet, we need to help."

"Steven, this isn't our universe. We already interfered enough, we shouldn't risk doing anymore damage."

"So we just leave!?" Max was stunned as Steven yelled at him. "I'm a gem! I won't let the good people be tormented, not while I can help. I know we can do something!"

"Don't be foolish Steven! This isn't our fight, what if you die here and the gems, your dad, or Connie never find you?! Our priority is to go home."

Steven only glared at Max with tears in his eyes before running off.

"Steven! Come back here!" Max runs after Steven, leaving only Psycho Max and Grim Steven.

"...hehehe, it's funny...never thought I would hear such hope and reasoning clash against each other."

G Steven just stays silent and slowly follows after them. P Max just rolls his eyes but follows behind.

"Steven! Where are you!?" Max called out as he looks for his partner in the ruins of the city.

Steven was currently in the remains of the car wash his dad worked in.

"...there has got to be a way to help." What he didn't notice was the looming figure that growled at him.

Max's eyes widen as he heard Steven scream for help. "I'm coming Steven!" He rushes toward his voice as fast as he can. He comes across the carwash for a scene that baffled him. He saw a strange pink beast licking Steven, the latter laughing loudly.

"W-what the heck is going on?" The beast looks at Max, showing it's lack of eyes, yet long hair. It growls at Maxwell but Steven puts on hand on it's head.

"I-it's okay, he's my friend." Steven said calmly as he comforts the beast as if it were just a massive dog. Soon P Max and G Steven come by, their eyes becoming smaller than pinpricks as they look at the scene before them.

"Well I'll be damned. He made friends with the beasts?" asked P Max.

"B-but I thought they were just monsters, they destroyed every building." G Steven exclaimed confused.

"...wait, did they ever kill anyone?" O Max seemed to be connecting the dots to something.

"Not that we know of, we didn't see any dead bodies or living humans. Me and Max somehow weren't affected, probably because of being half and half."

"...hmm." Max walks closer to the beast, being slow and calm. "...Greg, is that you?" The beast looked at Max curiously, not responding. "...if every porkchop was perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs." After saying that phrase, the beast pounces on Max and starts licking him. "Gah! S-stop it, I know you're happy but this is gross!" Everyone was astonished as Max got up and wiped off the slobber.

"D-dad?" Grim Steven cries as he hugs his transformed father, Greg holding him close.

"So...the bomb didn't kill them, it mutated them."

"Yes, I doubt the bomb was made for eradicating humans, it was just to turn the planet into a breeding ground for gems."

After some time, Original Max and Steven walk onto the warp pad, satisfied with what they have done.

"Hehehe, you two really helped, maybe if we can help the humans, we might learn how to help this planet...soon we may be able to help the gems too." Psycho Max smiles genuinely at the two, seeming sane and truly happy after so long.

"We won't forget you two. Maybe if we can, we'll come back and help." Max gives a thumbs up and Steven activated the warp pad. Grim Steven nods and roars, similar to the gentle pink Lion they all knew. The warp pad gets distorted as it sends off Max and Steven once again.

"Get ready Steven, who knows what is next."

Grim Steven later walked into the room where the corrupted Crystal gems were chained. He pulls an old key out of his pocket and lets them all free. He holds his arms open, ready to accept whatever they do to him. In a surprise though, the gems aren't hostile at all, they only hug him close, still completley loving and protective of him.


	18. Swap

Max was expecting a rough landing, but it seems like he sticks the landing this time.

"Yes! Safe...and no one around to see it. Say, where's Steven?" His question was answered as the boy in question falls right on top of him. "Ow."

"S-sorry Max, I can't really control where I land."

"It's okay, we're warping across space and time, we're lucky that we haven't been torn to shreds. Speaking of space and time, where are we now?"

"Well it looks like Beach City, and the temple is there."

"Well, no dystopia here. Let's check the temple to be sure." The duo head inside the familiar house, finding everything to be very similar, albeit lots of protien mix in the fridge.

"Has Amethyst taking a liking to this junk? Well she enjoys gasoline." Max closes the fridge before bumping into Steven.

"Whoops, sorry dude….Steven?" Steven stares at him with wide fearful eyes. Max was about to ask something before...Steven walks out of the bathroom.

"The bathroom seems the same but…" Steven looks to see Steven...two Stevens…

"Okay, it's safe to assume this isn't our world." Max says unamused before the frightened Steven yells out for help.

"Burglar! Clones! What's going on!?"

"H-hey calm down, we're not gonna hurt you." He looks to see the gems' door open, as three gems come out. There was Lapis, Peridot...who is taller? And...some orange gem. Max didn't know why, but he felt his pulse race when he saw her, just feeling the warrior spirit emanating from her.

"Lapis! Peridot! Jasper!"

"Wait Jasper?" Original Steven looks confused as he sees Jasper with the other gems. Max remembered when Steven told him the story of Jasper, Malachite, and her corruption.

"Steven? Why are there two of you? What is going on?"

"Okay! Enough! I will answer everyone's questions if we just calm down."

Everyone was silent. Max sighed as he explained the current problem Steven and him were facing, traveling to different dimensions revolving around changes to the Crystal gems.

"I know it sounds farfetched, but the proof is in the pudding. We got two Stevens here."

"What does pudding have to do with evidence?" Peridot asked confused.

"It's a figure of speech, I mean the facts are in plain sight."

"Well, it sounds plausible…may I ask your name?" Lapis asked politely. Max could see she was different, more motherly in a way, possibly from further interaction with Steven.

"Me?... I'm Maxwell Ignitus." He explains his story involving Obsidian and Rose Quartz. In return they explain that they joined Rose in her rebellion against Homeworld, and stayed on Earth with Steven when he was born.

"I-I see, so this is a world where the Crystal gems are switched. Interesting. Well, we need a way to keep traveling in hopes to get back home."

"Well human, it's not that easy, interdimensional travel is mostly theoretical, the warp pad only teleports us on Earth, to another warp pad. Unless you have an item or substance that carries the properties of warping, you're stuck here because we don't have this 'Lion' you speak of." Peridot informs,

"Hmm, will this do?" He explains the way his weapon cloak works, with how it travels his hand to grab from his weapon stash.

"Well, this may work, but I will need some time to work on it."

"That's fine, I'm sure we can entertain ourselves."

Lapis and the Two Stevens play and interact with each other while Peridot gets to work on his cloak. That leaves Maxwell and Jasper alone.

"...so an Obsidian? I will admit, their cutting skills are on a different level, but when it comes to real combat, it won't be enough." Jasper remarks.

"Hehehe, is that so? Well I'm more than some oversized letter opener, I trained myself to be stronger than any human. That may not mean a lot to a gem, but it is an achievement I stand by." The tension was obvious between them, the perfect soldier and the man with the fury of a volcano.

"Pretty spunky for a human. Words mean nothing though, at least not without action."

"Oh? Then let's settle this. We're both powerful warriors, we can end this debate on the beach."

"Sounds fine by me." Jasper grins as she cracks her knuckles, glad to finally fight once again.

The two walk onto the beach, both silently agreeing to not do anything to Beach City, at least not on purpose.

"I will admit, it's different to fight without my weapons, but it's better this way. No obsidian bullets or anything, only our own skills."

"Just try to last more than five seconds, I want to enjoy myself."

"Phrasing." Max chuckles after saying that, but then gets into his proper stance. He rushed at Jasper before jumping and putting all of his force into a spin kick at her gut. Jasper just catches him with incredible speed and hurls him into the ground.

"Gah!" Max grunts in pain the looks up to see Jasper summon her battle helmet. Before her attack could make contact though, Max blows smoke into her face and gets out of the small pit.

"Sneaky move, but you're gonna have to try harder!" She growls as she does a spin dash directly at Maxwell. Max closes his eyes as he focused as summoned his flame form. Everything seems to slow down as he sees her spinning. At the right time he sees her exposed body and takes aim. With a roar he throws hundreds of powerful punches, stopping her in her tracks and doing a considerable amount of damage. With Jasper stunned, Max focuses his fire into his obsidian hand, making it glow dangerously.

"Eruption!" He releases, striking her with a powerful uppercut, his obsidian hand literally exploding and sending her high into the air. He jumps hoping to catch her mid air and continue his onslaught. Before he can attack though, she grabs him.

"Nice trick, but try this one on for size!" Jasper starts spin dashing toward the ground while holding onto Max, the pressure of going from so high and rocketing toward the ground making him dizzy and weak. Just before hitting the ground, Jasper stops spinning and suplexes him so his head hit the ground, enough damage to easily kill a human, and shatter some gems. Max coughs up blood as he lays on the ground, struggling to get up.

Jasper pants heavily, her eyes widening as she sees him still trying to fight. "E-enough, it was a good fight but you're in no condition to continue."

"N-no! I-I refuse to give up. F-fifty years of training. I-I wanted to become the strongest so n-no one can never hurt me. I-I will win so the pain can stop!" Max looks at Jasper with tears and desperation in his eyes.

Jasper can only look at him with shock in her eyes. She slowly smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You already proved you're to be powerful...I was wrong about you, I admit that...but you trained to be stronger than humans. That may be impressive for you, but there are still plenty of incredibly powerful beings, some stronger than me. Instead of giving up, you should try to grow stronger. I may have came out as a perfect Quartz, but I still had to grow much stronger...Rose taught me to become strong in so many ways, and in some ways, her child helps me learn more."

Max only looks up at her with surprise, then slowly smiles. "...I trained myself in beating humans…" He looks at his obsidian hand and clenches it. "I wanted to become more than human, so I cannot rely on just human weapons and fighting techniques, I need to train my gem abilities too, and combine them to create more and more powerful skills to beat my opponents." With determination in his eyes, he looks to Jasper and smiles. "Thank you, even if we never meet again, I won't forget this."

With that all said and done, Max rests his aching body, glad for his quick healing by Steven, even it was gross. Peridot soon finished making the adjustments to his cloak and presented it to him.

"There, now if it works properly, you should be able to teleport to a new dimension as long as you activate the warp pad as well."

"Thank you Peridot, we just need to keep trying until someone can send us home, or we get there ourselves." Steven and Max look at the gems and other Steven with a smile before they activate the warp pad and move on to the next dimension.


	19. A King?

Author's note: This AU is based off the fanfiction titled, "A Leader's Call" by skydarius11. Go check it out, it has all the heartache and love you could ever want and more. I swear, it made me cry a few times, now on to the story.

A familiar scene appears as Maxwell opens his eyes. A sandy beach and a serene town.

"So far so good, this looks like home, but looks can be deceiving...Steven?" He looks around, then hears a groan as his Steven wakes up, rubbing his head.

"I-I'm okay, it's just that, the teleportation is about as bad as the teacups."

"Well don't go barfing on me, regain your bearings and we'll check out the temple."

After some time, the dimension hopping duo carefully walks toward the gems' household. They open the door and sneak a peek inside.

"Nobody seems to be home."

"Best case scenario, this is home and the gems are out on a mission. Worst case scenario, zombie apocalypse."

"Noooooo!"

"I'm kidding...mostly" Max just chuckles at Steven's multiple expressions of fear, relief, then fear again. Before they can take another step inside though, a loud yawn is heard. They look to see Steven in Steven's bed...wait what? On closer inspection, this appears to be an alternate Steven, one who looks...more experienced in a way. He definitely has a bit of muscle, yet Max couldn't help but feel a sort of...sadness emanating from him.

"Sooo...this isn't our dimension."

"I guess not, unless the gems somehow made a clone of you to compensate."

As the two converse, they fail to realize the sleeping Steven beginning to wake up.

"Uh….." The two gulp and look toward the now awoken Steven.

"Okay, I know this looks weird, but-" Max is cut off as he hears a certain roar. He turns and sees Lion growling at him, yet also gives a confused look to the two Stevens.

"Wait wait wait! I can explain!" Lion wasn't listening as he pounced at Max.

"GAH!" Max scurries off the bed, running around in hopes of not getting his butt chomped off.

"Max!" Original Steven looks worriedly as the other Steven looks surprised."

"W-wait, you know him?"

"Yeah he's my friend. I know this sounds crazy, but we accidentally started traveling to different universes. Um, I'm Steven, nice to meet you."

"I'm Steven too." They shake hands while Mx gives them an unamused look as he hangs from the ceiling.

"Well now that we are all acquainted, can someone help me!" The Stevens rub the backs of their necks embarrassed. Current Steven gets down from bed and goes to calm down Lion.

"Lion it's okay, he's a guest, I don't think they want to hurt us."

Lion growls and somehow Lion and Steven communicate with each other with ease.

"Wow, you really bonded with Lion. Sometimes my Lion barely listens."

"Well, we've shared an experience before." With Lion begrudgingly calmed down, Max hops down and sighs in relief.

"Okay, now what I was trying to say is-" Once again, he is cut off as the warp pad shines.

"Can I just say one thing?!" The light dims, to reveal 6 gems. Not only was there Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, but there was Lapis, a taller Peridot...and another Jasper.

"Steven, we're back and-" Pearl stops mid sentence as she looks at the scene of two Stevens, Lion, and a human with an arm made of volcanic rock.

"...were there always two Stevens?" Amethyst asked confused. In a flash, they all draw their weapons to fight the intruder.

"Oh come on." Max braces himself for a fight, with his Steven right next to him. Before anyone could clash though, the current Steven puts his fingers to his mouth and whistles loudly.

"Everyone stop! Please, no one needs to fight." Everyone listened calmly, almost as if his words held a spell over them. Even Max felt any will to fight, vanish from his body.

"...thank you Steven. I'm sorry to have come here unannounced. I am Maxwell Ignitus, but Max is fine. I come from a universe where me and my Steven are good friends, and I happily became an ally of the Crystal gems. I understand my story may seem far fetched, but we plead for your help. Steven and I just wish to return home." With his speech finished, the gems looked at him cautiously, but the their Steven only smiles and goes to shake his hand. Max smiles and accepts the gesture of peace.

"I'm sorry to hear you're far from home, but we'll do what we can to help."

"Thank you. All we need is to use the wap pad, then my cloak can…" He was going to show off his cloak but then sees how it is tattered and sparking.

"Damn, the transportation must have been too much. The Peridot from the earlier universe modified the transportational abilities of my cloak so…" He went rambling on about the scientific properties, confusing everyone except Peridot who was taking many notes on her holopad.

"I see, well if you give it to me, I should be able to fix it. If one peridot can do it, then I certainly can fix it." Peridot boasts.

"Thank you, maybe we can exchange stories as we wait."

"Yeah! Story for Steven!" Original Steven waits excitedly as the gems and current Steven share the long, over 40 chapters worth of an adventure.

After some time, everyone was tired from such a tale and had some dinner together, although it was mostly the half humans who took part in the glorious feast of pizza. It was late at night as Maxwell walked outside to view the stars and moon. It was funny how similar it was, yet so different.

"Hey Max...you okay?" The current Steven of this universe asked as he sat down next to him.

"Yeah, I'm just a it worried. Not just about getting home, but keeping my Steven safe. He's strong, kind, but so many things out there can hurt him. Infinite universes, infinite possibilities...I won't stop until I get him back to the gems safely." After speaking, he looked at Steven, who looked exhausted. Max's eyes widen as he remembered from Steven's story, he was able to absorb the negativity from others and fight it.

"Steven stop! My negative emotions are too much."

"N-no, I've done this a lot, it's okay."

"No it's not! I'm not from this universe, I'm not your concern, I won't let you risk killing yourself for me." With a heavy sigh, Max focuses on his obsidian hand. His eyes flash purple for a second, showing the insanity that resides within. With one swipe he knocks away Steven and takes out a black demonic looking creature, made entirely of his negative emotions.

"Steven, this monster is only a small fraction of the horrid storm that resides within me. I appreciate your help, but I cannot let you do this. This is the pain I suffered to become who I am, and I will solve it in my home, I can't let you hurt yourself for me." Max crushes the beast with his hardened hand.

Steven shakes his head as he gets up. "I-I didn't realize there was so much...how come you don't want my help, doesn't it hurt?"

"...It's torture. But it helped me grow. I use this pain to grow stronger and wiser, and learn to smile wider. I'm really thankful for your help Steven...but trust me when I say I know what I'm doing." Max smiles as he hugs Steven close. Steven only nods with a heavy sigh.

After some time, Max's cloak was repaired and the duo get onto the warp pad. "Steven, gems, Lion, you're all wonderful beings."

 **Now for a song, it's cringe worthy, sorry to everyone, including Jacksepticeye and Schmoyoho**

 _Hello everyone my name is Max Ignitus_

 _My name is Max Ignitus._

 _Max Yes Max Yes MAX YES!_

 _All the way_

 _To freaking victory town_

 _All the way_

 _Feels good to be a winner_

 _Every now and then_

 _I believe in you_

 _I believe_

 _I believe in you!_

 _I believe_

 _I believe in Steven_

 _In Steven!(oh yeah)_

 _In Steven!_

 _Grab the glory_

 _All the way to victory_

 _All the way(keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way(keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, you got this)_

 _All the way way, all the way (keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way (keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, keep on)_

 _(Keep goin, keep on)_

 _AAAAAAAAAAHHH!_

 _Simple challenge?_

 _Life is nothing like that_

 _Stand tall on your feet_

 _You're all we need_

 _Feel your heart beat_

 _Life is nothing like that_

 _Feel your heart beat!_

 _Great, great Steven_

 _You're great at being you_

 _Great, great Steven_

 _You're my best friend in the world_

 _Great, great Steven_

 _I hope you never die_

 _Die, die, die, die_

 _With any regrets_

 _Oh yeah!_

 _All the way(keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way(keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, you got this)_

 _All the way way, all the way (keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way (keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, keep on)_

 _(Keep goin, keep on)_

 _AAAAAAAAAAHHH!_

 _Hey there little potato boy_

 _You're the one getting involved with magic?_

 _See, you hanging out with those gems don't you?_

 _You're cool, so cool_

 _You have a shield?_

 _Whoa!_

 _Little potato boy, you were always my favorite_

 _AAAAHH!_

 _I believe (I believe)_

 _I believe in Steven_

 _In Steven!(oh yeah)_

 _In Steven!_

 _Grab the glory_

 _All the way to victory_

 _All the way(keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way(keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, you got this)_

 _All the way way, all the way (keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way (keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, keep on)_

 _(Keep goin, keep on)_

 _AAAAHH!_

 _All the way(keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way(keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, you got this)_

 _All the way way, all the way (keep on a dancin)_

 _All the way (keep on flyin)_

 _All the way (keep goin, keep on)_

 _(Keep goin, keep on)_

 _AAAAAAAAAAHHH!_


	20. This is Ridiculous

_Warp_

Max and Steven look around as they seem to be in Beach City but...everyone was either Max or Steven.

"Okay, this is weird. I know I said infinite possibilities but this is just strange."

"Y-yeah, let's go find the warp pad and leave." They hurry to the temple and to the warp pad.

 _Warp_

Max was about to say something, but then noticed the severe lack of oxygen and the water filling his lungs. Steven was about to panic before he summoned a bubble for them, complete with fresh air.

"Gah!" Max pants heavily and coughs up the water as he tries to figure out what happened.

"W-why is there so much water?" Steven asked as he looked through the bubble, seeing Beach City submerged in the water.

"This seems to be a universe where Earth has been flooded. How are we gonna be able to get to the warp pad now?!"

"Hmm….can you warp with just your cloak?"

"Well, maybe, but who knows what will happen?"

"It can't be that bad."

Max only sighs and activates his cloak.

 _Warp_

They were on dry land...but everything seemed different, less ... animated. Max looked around and at his body. Steven looks at his hands with a scared look.

"Okay I admit I was wrong, lets leave."

 _Warp_

Max and Steven appear to be somewhere in space. Steven puts a bubble around them as they look around.

"Where are we now?" Before Max could say anything, something knocks into the bubble.

"Gah! What the heck?" He looks to see a strange blue phone booth, labeled police box.

"Sorry about that!" Said a british sounding voice from within the box before it spun around and flew off.

"...was that…no it can't be. Let's go."

 _Warp_

They appear to be on a beach...but not the one they want.

"What is this place...and why do I have a bad feeling about it?"

"Hmm…" He looks to see boats loaded with soldiers coming from the sea. He then looks to see soldiers armed with machine guns and with swastikas on their uniforms. "Oh **** no"

"Hey, no swearing."

" I don't think you understand Steven. We went back in time. This is World War II, D-Day!"

"What's that?"

"...remind me to tell Pearl to let me teach you human history."

That's when the guns started firing.

"AH! WE GOTTA GO!"

 _Warp_

"Agh, we're getting nowhere!"

"Let me try, we'll go super fast."

"No wait!"

Steven grabs his cloak and starts warping them rapidly.

 _Warp_

"Badoop badoop Banana Bus"

 _Warp_

"Cowabunga!"

 _Warp_

"Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold. BYE!"

 _Warp_

"Don't lose your way!"

 _Warp_

"Yare yare daze"

 _Warp_

"You gotta look inside yourself and say, what am I willing to put up with today? NOT FUCKING THIS!"

 _Warp_

"Grasssss tastes bad."

 _Warp_

"Steven stop! This isn't working, I just feel like I'm gonna vomit."

"I already did a few dimensions ago."

"There has to be some way to do this, maybe we're looking at this the wrong way."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm...we warped with the warp pad at first, and we remained within stuff similar to the gems. When we relied only on my cloak, we went to those alternate worlds that had nothing to do with the gems."

"You're right…"

"We need an anchor or something to help us get home."

"An anchor…" Steven looks at his gem and gasps. "I got it! We use my gem! Maybe then we can go to our world."

"...you're right! Let's try it." He puts the cloak around Steven and the young boy focuses on his gem. A bright light covers them both, soon vanishing with them.

 _Warp_

"...d-did we do it right?" The two look around the beach, seemingly near Beach City and the temple.

"Well, there is only one way to find out." The two head into the house and see the gems huddled together."

"But we haven't seen him all day, what if he ran away, or was kidnapped!?"

"I promise you everything will be okay."

"How will everything be okay?!"

Garnet just smiles and looks to Max and Steven who were at the front door. Pearl looks in surprise before smiling and jumping to hug Steven.

"Steven! You're safe, what happened? Did Max do this?"

"I haven't done anything to him, we've been trying to get home for so long."

Max explains the story of how the warp pad backfired and transferred the duo across the multiverse. After some time reuniting, everyone went to rest, the large adventure finally over.


	21. Love

_Can broken hearts be restored?_

Max was sitting with Steven and Amethyst, sharing some popcorn as they watch the newest Lonely Blade movie. Max found the combat to be repetitive, but overall the movie wasn't too bad, Steven sure seemed to be enjoying himself, Amethyst on the other hand seemed satisfied eating 90% of the popcorn. The only thing that really made Max cringe was the newly introduced romantic subplot between Lonely Blade and Single Sword.

"Aw, it's so cute. I really hope they can get together." Steven was deeply involved with the story and relationships. Soon came the weirdly animated kissing scene between the two characters, making Max feel sick as he got up and walked away from the TV.

"Max? You okay?"

"I-it's nothing really."

"No, Steven's right. Your face looks like Steven's when he tried motor oil."

"You said it was delicious! How was I supposed to know it'd make me sick?"

"And that's why either Garnet or Pearl have to check anything new you want to eat. So why do you look sick dude?"

"...it's just...I don't think love exists."

Amethyst looks at him a bit, before starting to laugh loudly. "Oh you're serious? I'm gonna laugh even harder, AHAHAHA!"

"Why would you not believe in love? It's everywhere!"

"L-look, I understand that Garnet is a literal manifestation of love, and Rose and Greg were a beautiful couple who made a wonderful child….but for the human race, I can't help but feel it's just a big lie."

Steven puts a hand under his chin, deep in thought.

"Hmm...do you love me?"

"Steven, that's a loaded question. I guess I do, I think of you like a brother."

"See, brotherly love! And you probably think of the gems as family right?"

Max blushes furiously as he looks away. He at first viewed the gems as goddesses, beings who were far too beautiful and powerful for him. Yet after coming back to them and living with them and Steven, he viewed them in a different light. They all had their flaws, but were still amazing. Garnet can be mysteries, not very talkative, and a bit hardheaded, yet she was also powerful, protective, smart when it comes to relationships, and an all around great leader. Pearl can be a uptight, a perfectionist, and a tad judgemental about humans, but she is also very graceful, intelligent, a master of cleaning, and really sweet when she wants to be. Amethyst can be a slob, can be rash, and not very brainy, but is very fun to be around, all around super funny, very friendly with humans, and sticks up for those she cares about. And all three of them are very physically attractive, great dancers, and really care about those they call family. So with time, Max couldn't help but grow to become very attracted to the gems.

"W-well…"

"Steven of course he like us, we're awesome." Amethyst says jokingly as she finds the bowl of popcorn empty. She shrugs and goes to her room. "Thanks for the free popcorn, I'll talk to you guys later."

Once she left, Max let's out a sigh and lays down.

"Max?"

"I'm okay, it's nothing."

"...so you never answered my question. What do you think of the gems?"

"...I think they're wonderful." Max replied with a massive blush on his face.

"Hmm, I got an idea!"

After a hour or so, Max was put into a tux and was sitting at a table where a fake candle is put up.

"I really don't think this is a good idea Steven."

"Trust me, this will help restore your faith in love."

"But Steven-" He cut himself off as he sees the gems come in beautiful dresses, Garnet stoic as ever, Pearl smiling awkwardly, and Amethyst just scratching her head with a lazy smile.

"You all look perfect! Now we can start." Steven was dressed up like a little waiter and a drawn on mustache. He puts out a large pizza for them to share. "Bon appetite!"

"T-thanks Steven." Max was nervous as hell as he carefully takes a slice.

Steven pretends to play the violin as he actually had a recording of romantic music playing from his phone.

Amethyst happily starts eating without any table manners, Pearl doesn't eat, and Garnet seemed to stay quiet until looking at Max. "So Maxwell...what spurred these feelings?"

"Not beating around the bush huh? Look, I tried to explain this to Steven. I do think you three are beautiful and attractive-"

"I'm flattered, but do you really think it's love?"

"I never said it was love I just-"

"Oh right, you don't believe in it, you think it's a lie."

"It's more complicated than that!"

"Then what is it? Love is not something you play around with, it takes time and-"

"I FUCKING KNOW! JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME TALK!" Everyone stares at Max with wide eyes. His eyes were filled with tears as everything spilled out.

"I-I wanted to believe in love, I really did...but I was hurt...so many times…"

Everyone listened intently wanting to hear him out.

"I was 23 when I met my first girl. I was in college and trying to expand my knowledge, but then I met her. She was beautiful, smart, kind, and I believed nothing could go wrong. We were together for two years, which may seem small to gems, but it felt like a life long journey for me. We were about to graduate in a few months, and I was going to propose to her...but then she came to me and said she wanted to break up. I asked why, and she fucking said it's because I was too slow. I wanted to take my time before asking if we can be…'intimate' but apparently she hated it. She said she found a man who took charge and made her feel like a woman. I was astonished and asked 'what about all those times you said you loved me?' And she just said 'honey, love doesn't exist.'"

They were all in shock to hear about this. Garnet removed her visor and looked at him sadly. "Max, I'm sorry this happened to you, but you cannot let one horrible event stop you from-"

"It was far from just one bad experience. I've had my heart broken so many times."

"30 years old, still looked the same, yet I was mentally different. I was in a bad place. Sure I was making a lot of money with my job, but I had a bad drinking problem. Every day, trying different wine, swigging enough beer to kill an average man. Eventually sweet girl found me. I tried hard to push her away, but she insisted on helping me. She helped me to her home and listened to my story. For 2 weeks she cared for me, listened to me, I thought everything would be wonderful. One morning though, I woke up strapped to a table, gagged and blinded. I tried screaming for help, but my blindfold was removed to show my captor was the girl who I thought loved me. She used a strange syringe on me, I was too weak to break free. I was her slave, helpless to do anything as she did...horrible things to me. She whipped me, raped me...just made her plaything. Eventually the serum wore off, and then I broke free in a terrible frenzy of rage, tapping into my abilities as a half gem. I'm not proud of killing her...but I don't regret it either."

They were horrified by his tales but he kept going.

"36 years old, I decided to give the dating scene a try, but this time it was a guy. I will admit, time made me a little bicurious, albeit the female form is still more appealing to me. It didn't matter to me at the time, he was nice, willing to give me the time of day. But soon his father found out. Apparently his dad absolutely hated homosexuality. In order to avoid getting in trouble, he pinned the whole thing on me. He went so far as to call me…many awful names concerning homosexuality. His father bought it and used a gun on me, trying to kill me. It was that incident that helped me learn of my defensive powers, my obsidian hand blocking the bullets. I retaliated and beat up his father, making sure to give that traitorous bastard the same treatment."

"Then so many more, a woman who was secretly a prostitute, made her pimp try to kill and rob me. Then a girl who only wanted my money….so many of them who hurt me. A minuscule part of me keeps begging me to try and find love, but every other part of me knows it's futile."

With his story over, he looks at the four. They had tears in their eyes, sobbing sadly before all hugging him close.

"I-I'm so sorry Max! I-I shouldn't have done this, I-I should have never set up this dinner date."

"N-no Steven, you were just trying to help, I appreciate it..but it's too late for me."

"M-Maxwell, I-I was wrong to judge you, I had no idea."

"It's fine Garnet...don't blame yourself."

Garnet rarely didn't know what to do, her future vision was failing her, and Ruby and Sapphire were conflicted. She looks at Max and lightly puckers her lips, going closer to his. Max just smiled and put a finger to her lips.

"Thank you Garnet, but I do not want a kiss of pity. Just...lets hug for a bit more...it's nice." Garnet just smiles and nods. Everyone agrees as they hold Max to comfort him.

After some time, Max lets them off. "I'm sorry for all this drama and stuff, I should just keep my mouth shut."

"No Max, it was good that you told us. We think of you as a true friend, family too." Pearl smiles at him softly. "If you ever want to talk more about it, we're here for you."

"Y-yeah dude, we stick together," Amethyst gives a wide smile and thumbs up.

"...thank you all. This helps a lot, you don't know how much better I feel."

"Yeah….I'm just sorry I couldn't help you find some love."

"It's okay Steven. I don't need romance to be happy, just being with you all is more than enough."

Soon everything is cleaned up and everyone heads to bed. Max lays down, thinking over what happened. He still had feelings for the gems, and they knew about it, but it would probably be better not to act on it. Maybe with time, things could get better for his heart.

 **Author's note: I'm really sorry if this was too intense. If it is too much for a T rating and should be M instead, feel free to say so. If enough say the rating needs to change, I'll change it. I hope you all manage to continue to enjoy my bad story.**


	22. Delirious

With time things became less awkward, everything seemed to be going back to the regular routine of training, hanging out, and missions of stopping corrupted gems. Max enjoyed his place with the Crystal Gems, he felt like a real part of the team, someone they can rely on… All it takes though, is one accident to possibly sever those ties.

"Okay, now a little left, a little right, I said right, WATCH OUT!" Max yells for his life as Amethyst almost crashed the car into a tree.

"Amethyst, when you asked me to be your driving instructor, I didn't know you were gonna ignore me the entire time."

"I'm not ignoring you, I'm just filtering out the boring stuff."

"That sounds close enough to be ignoring me. You gotta focus when driving, if you're not careful you can easily end a life."

"Dude i'm like 5000 years old, I got this." She grins as she floors the gas pedal, making Max freak out.

"Gah! We're going too fast!"

"This is awesome!" Amethyst whoops and hollers as they drive on the wrong side of the road.

"Amethyst please just- LOOK OUT!" They were on a collision course with Buck, Jenny, and Sour Cream who happened to be driving as well.

"Wha? WHOA!" Amethyst swerves out of the way, but crashed instead into a brick wall. "Phew, well this isn't so bad." She helps as the airbags deploy and hit her in the face. "Ow, you okay Max?"

"Um, no."

"What do you mean?" She moves the airbags out of the way and her eyes widen to see some of the wrecked car pierced through his chest, and he happens to be bleeding a lot.

"I've been impaled." He says in a state of shock.

"Oh shit! M-max, y-you're gonna be okay, we can get help."

"N-no just, help get this out of my chest, I-I may pass out but I promise I will be-" he cuts himself off as he loses consciousness, his face pale from blood loss.

Amethyst gasps before getting him out of the wreckage. She hurried to the temple, tears in her eyes as she tries to think of how to explain that she just killed a good friend. Yet before she can knock on the door to the temple, Max starts to stir.

"Max! I-I knew you'd be okay." She lays him down, looking to see his wound seems to have closed, yet he was still a sickly skin tone.

"...Max?" She asked cautiously before Max's eyes shoot open. He smiles wide and his eye color seemed to have gone from his average black to a dark shade of purple.

"HELLOOOOOOOOO BEACH CITY!" He yells at the top of his lungs as he gets up with a spring in his step.

"Um...Max, did you hit your head in the crash?"

"Hmm? Who's Max? Oh right, his new name. I keep forgetting that. And it's a pleasure to see you again Amethyst. Oh wait, we never met in this timeline, allow me to introduce myself, I'm Zero!"

Amethyst looked at him, for some reason feeling very cautious of this "Zero" and his strange attitude. Soon the ruckus had attracted the others as they look at him in bewilderment.

"Amethyst what's going on?" Pearl asked concerned.

"I-I don't know, we were driving, we crashed, Max was injured and I was bringing him here, and now he's acting weird."

"I'm not weird, I'm fabulous~" Zero said while posing dramatically. "But allow me to explain. This happens all the time. Whenever a gem is fatally injured, they return to their gem, but Max doesn't have this luxury. Instead his body is out in the open as it tries to heal whatever damage has happened. Unfortunately this takes a lot of energy so he can't protect himself or even speak. But that's where I come in, I'm the part of him where all of his despair and insanity accumulate. I take over whenever he is fatally wounded or is so mentally/emotionally traumatized that he cannot function properly. You can call me Zero, it was Max's original name before he left his awful family and legally changed it to forget his past, got a document and everything!"

With his explanation over, he smiled and pushed the confused family to the side as he walked inside.

"Don't worry about me slaughtering you all or something, Max the lovesick puppy won't allow me."

"W-wait, Max is still there?" Steven asked hopefully.

"Sorta, he remains in the body with the biggest influence, so I kinda have to not break his morals or whatever. If I do then he'll disconnect me from any control and risk letting the body die. He obviously cares more about all of your well being than his own life."

"He...cares that much?"

"Oh yeah, poor guy sees Steven as like the best little brother ever. As for you three, his heart is always beating faster, he's completely love struck and even trusts you all."

Some blushes can be seen from that fact being revealed until it is replaced with fear as they see Zero juggling knives nonchalantly.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you rest?" Pearl asked while shielding Steven from any possible interaction with the sharp cutlery.

"Probably, but I haven't been in control for so long that I want to have some fun. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to burn anyone alive, so I'll settle with entertaining myself like this." He then engulfs the knives with fire while laughing wildly as he continued juggling.

"Gems, as much as I would prefer not to harm Maxwell, Zero is a threat and he needs to be contained."

"Maybe we can talk to him?" Steven asked, always hoping for a more diplomatic solution.

"That's a nice thought Steven, but he seems…" Pearl searches for the right word.

"Crazy? Insane? Cuckoo?" Amethyst suggests.

"I was going for more, unstable."

As they discussed their plan of action, Zero gets nosy and pops his head into the huddle.

"What are we talking about? Favorite movies? I was always a fan of the Saw movies, but that Deadpool movie really speaks to me, I don't know why." The gems jump back in surprise.

"I'm sorry Zero, but in order to keep Max's body safe, we will have to detain you." Garnet said as she and the others summoned their weapons.

"Well isn't that cute, you all care about him. Or is it pity because of his little sob stories? I swear he is so overdramatic about them. Personally I hate the idea of romance." He continued to talk as if he were on a morning stroll while dodging any attacks from the gems effortlessly.

"I mean, you gotta use all of your money to get some chick some presents and fancy dinners so she'll like you." Ducks as Garnet tires to grab him, and rolls between her legs. "Then you gotta do all this mushy talking and promises to stay together forever." Parries Pearl's spear with one of the knives he used for juggling before disarming her. "Then once you do this ridiculous marriage thing, you have some fun in the bedroom, forget to use protection, and get stuck with ungrateful brats who bleed you of money, and the girl would easily choose to let you die if she had to choose between you or the children." Amethysts whips take away his knife before the three finally jump in him and pin him down. "Personally I don't see the appeal."

They put a bubble around him, making him pout like a child. "Let me out of here, I wanna speak with my lawyer."

"Sorry Max, I mean Zero, but everyone says you're too dangerous, and I kinda agree."

"You too Steven? Well I guess that's to be expected. Considering I almost killed everyone you love."

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Well, no one remembers but me. In fact, I'm surprised I remember. What happened is that you accidentally released me from Max when you went into the dream world. Being without chains, I had some fun by killing everyone in Beach City, even forced little Ruby and Sapphire to aim a gun at each other. But then you tricked me, licking your fist so your punch would heal me. So using an hourglass I stole from that flooded chamber, I basically changed time so I was never freed and you all kept being friendly with Maxwell. I thought it would be too much of a dick move to leave him to clean up my mess. But when changing time, all memories should have been replaced, but it still left a seed of doubt. That fear when you look into my eyes, knowing that in one timeline I almost won."

They all looked in fear, their care for Max transforming into fear of Zero.

"It's okay to hate me, I'm used to it."

"...but you shouldn't." Steven said with a kind smile.

"What?"

"You're only like this because you're so used to pain, but that can change. Max has been happier here, making friends and having fun. We can do that for you too, so you don't have to be hated, but have love instead." Steven and the gems all smiled, no longer in fear of him.

"...hehehe, ridiculous. You're a good kid, I see why Max is happy...but it won't be as simple as that."

He stared into space before sighing.

"Who knows, maybe with time I can be a hero… until then, I'll leave the spotlight to Max."

He grins before his skin returns to a natural color and his eyes close. A few seconds pass before he opens his eyes and looks around.

"Um...why am I in a bubble? Did Zero act up?"

"Max!" The four smile wide seeing him back to normal and undo the bubble before all hugging him.

"We missed you!"

"Um, t-thanks, I'm sorry for not letting you all know about my recovery system."

"It's okay, we're all here for you."

Max just smiles as he stays in the group hug.

 **Author's Note: well I haven't seen any death threats or pitchforks yet, so I guess I'll continue with the new romantic subplot for my story. I will give a heads up, if I get even more in love with the idea of giving the characters happy love lives, I may start writing nsfw sections of the story. I'm currently planning on putting any nsfw stuff in a separate story so I don't have to change my rating or put up warnings, but if enough followers say they want the smut here, I'll do it. Until then, I'll continue brainstorming ideas for the story in the safety of my negativity proof pillow fort with watermelon Stevens guarding the front. Feel free to send suggestions and ideas. *puts on helmet* Let's hope I don't have to suffer much of a shitstorm.**


	23. Level Up

_Warp_

Max and Steven step off the warp pad as they look around a familiar field of strawberries.

"So Garnet said this would be an easy mission, just gotta deal with some small corrupted gem minions. She said that she couldn't see the true corrupted gem in her future vision, so this won't be really life threatening, but always stay on guard."

"Right!" He takes out his ukulele to give some nice music as they traverse, Max helping to keep any butterflies off him.

"Hehehe, walking around, looking for monsters, it kinda reminds me of my old training style."

"Old training?"

"Well yeah, when I got better control over my abilities, I couldn't help but feel as if I was part of an rpg."

"Oh! Like a role playing game?"

"Exactly, it's kinda why I have names for my attacks, victory poses, and cool quotes like 'Prepare for Maximum carnage.' and stuff like that."

"Cool! Maybe we can do that here, there are some monsters, we're on a quest, a perfect scenario!"

"You think so?...Yeah, why not. Two buds voyaging on the sea of adventure!"

"Yeah!" He strums his ukulele happily until they heard a small growl.

"Hmm...what was that?" Max sneaked quietly as he saw a bush tremble. With a look of determination, he jumps into the shrub...and runs out screaming as ugly moth like creatures with oozing mouths bite and pinch him. "Too much adventure!"

"I can help!" Steven runs too Max and summons his bubble, pushing the moths back and freeing Max.

"Thanks, didn't expect so many."

"No problem. You think those were from the corrupted gem?"

"No doubt about it. But you know something common in rpgs? Bugs are weak to fire." Max smirks as he gets in a battle stance as the swarm of moths come flying back.

"We got this Max!" Steven stands beside him, ready for action.

As one moth flew ahead of the others for a divebomb, Max focused on his obsidian hand and summoned a small lava rock before chucking it directly at the monster, making it poof from contact.

"My turn!" Steven summoned his shield and threw it at the swarm, making it ricochet off a few and effectively take out a total of four, yet the rest were still closing in.

"I think it's time we try a special team attack!"

"Special team attack!? What should we do?"

"Hurry and summon your bubble." Steven nods as he forms his bubble around himself. "Okay, now when I say so, I want you to focus on trying to make your bubble explode."

"Got it!" Steven braces his body as Max grabs a baseball bat out of his cloak and swings with all of his might, launching Steven into the swarm.

"NOW!" Max yelled at the top of his lungs. Steven grunts as he focused on his bubble, spikes forming onto it before it finally pops and sends multitudes of pink thorns out in every direction and taking out every last moth.

Max pumps his fist into the air in victory as Steven laughs happily and floats down slowly.

"Amazing job Steven, that's a lot of EXP for us."

"Hehehe, who knows, maybe we grew stronger and learned new moves."

The two laugh and enjoy their small victory until a loud shriek was heard.

"...what was that?" Steven asked nervously.

"...an upcoming boss battle." Max smirks as he starts walking to where the noise came from.

"Wait, shouldn't we get the gems, I mean, maybe you can beat it on your own and show off to them, or in case it's too strong, they can help."

"...Steven...I don't want to show off to the gems."

"Why not? Don't you want them to think you're cool and stuff?"

"I mean, a part of me does...but it wouldn't be right."

"What do you mean?"

"...I have feelings for the gems, I can't deny that, but what I don't know is what these feelings are. Those three are absolutely wonderful, but I don't need future vision to know it won't work in the end. For one, Garnet is already a relationship, and I don't want to risk ruining any of it, plus she seems more like she pities me, and a relationship shouldn't be built on feeling sorry for someone. Amethyst is fun and all, but I can tell she has some issues that need to be worked out, and needs friendship more than a silly romance with a human. As for Pearl, I don't think she really wants anything to do with a human, also I feel she thinks I'm just an inexperienced self proclaimed gem, I don't think it will be easy to prove to her that I'm not just a human who got lucky and is now a host for a corrupted gem. Hell, I doubt I have anything in common with them besides wanting to protect you with my life. Any feelings I have, are better off sitting in the bottom of a tar pit."

Steven looks at Max sadly, wanting to help him have a happy ending with love, but knowing what he said is true. What he didn't expect though, was for Max to look at him with a smile.

"I'm okay with that though, I don't want to do anything with romance, not at least until I'm 100. Who knows, maybe with time we can make a relationship grow. All it takes is just some bonding together as allies. For now though, I'm more concerned about being good friends with the gems, and being an awesome big brother. And after what I've seen so far, I'm more than sure the two of us can deal with what's ahead."

"...yeah, you're right Max, we can do this." With a quick hug, the two run off to investigate.

Max and Steven sneak as they hear the shrieking getting louder as they move closer. They look to see a strange being wearing a dark red hoodie with an image of three white claw marks emblazoned on the back. The being was armed with a crowbar and a submachine gun. It was fighting the true corrupted gem, a massive moth with violet eyes, sickly green body and gem on its forehead, orange wings, and black carapace. The monster shrieked as it was riddled with bullets, spitting a silky black substance onto its attacker, yet the figure broke through with ease and brutally bashed the beast with its crowbar. Once the moth was down, it cried out in agony as the hooded figure used its crowbar to try and pry the gem off its forehead.

"HEY! Leave them alone!" Steven runs out angrily, pushing the hooded figure aside with his arms out protecting the corrupted gem. "I won't let you hurt them."

The hooded figure only stays silent before raising his crowbar, about to strike Steven. But it stopped halfway as Max put a hand on its shoulder. "Attacking a child? That's bad. Attacking my brother? That's even worse." Max's grip tightens as he tosses the hooded figure away and blasts waves of fire at the enemy. The hoodie itself was burned, revealing a middle aged man with a stubbly beard, eyepatch, black crew cut, and wearing just a tank top and blue pants.

"Ugh, this wasn't in the job description. I better get more money for this." The mystery man takes aim and fires rapidly, only for Steven to summon a bubble shield around Max.

"Thanks!" Max chuckles as he runs in the mobile bubble, using it to tackle the mystery man.

"Stupid kid, now I gotta hurt you." The man tosses aside his gun and holds the crowbar with one hand.

"Oh please, your little tool isn't gonna break a magic bubble." Max was proven wrong immediately as the man swings and smashes the bubble, his crowbar glowing eerily.

"...okay, this has gotten more interesting." Max dodges each swing of the crowbar, but this man seemed proficient in fighting as he managed to get some powerful kicks and punches past Max's defenses and deal considerable damage.

"You're out of your league kid, leave now before I have to kill you."

Max just growls angrily as his obsidian hand shines. "I'm gonna hurt you."

"Wait, a gem?" The man is cut off from thinking as Max retaliates with a flurry of punches, then doing a somersault kick and launching the man into the air.

"Time to end this." Max grabs his bat before jumping into the air. "ROCKIN SMASH!" With his subtlety game referenced attack named, he swings and blasts the man into the ground, possibly breaking several of his bones. His crowbar glows brightly before vanishing completely.

"Next time, stay out of gem business." Max leaves the unconscious man as he goes to check on Steven and the corrupted gem. "Is everything okay here?"

"Yeah, we're alright." Steven smiles as the corrupted gem nuzzles Steven thankfully for protecting them before glowing and poofing into it's gem. Steven bubbles the gem before sending it off.

"Well, now that is dealt with, time we see who our little friend is." Max glares at the mysterious man as he struggles to get up.

"Y-you kids aren't human."

"Close, we're half and half."

The man only glares at him before reaching for something in his pocket, then puts it in his mouth. "Heed my warning! You have made an enemy of the White Claws! The Crystal Gems will die, and you two along with them!" The man began to convulse violently, foam coming out of his mouth.

"What the, crazy bastard took a suicide tablet!" Max was about to run and help, but then the man's body began dissolving, his entire body and clothing seemingly gone from existence, no trace left.

"W-why would he do that?"

"It's a last resort move used by soldiers and assassins, killing themselves so they can't be interrogated or tortured for information. They would rather die with honor, than live in shame."

"...What do we do now?"

"We have to report this to the gems. That guy said he was part of some group...the White Claws. Whether they are enemies of the gems for centuries or are relatively new, they may be a threat."

Max and Steven walk back to the warp pad and temple, ready to give the news to the gems.

"...Sir! We have lost all trace of agent Blood. We can confirm he kept his promise to the oath and didn't reveal any valuable information, only a warning." The small soldier says while still saluting to the tall, powerful, and wise human leader.

"Good soldier...prepare the Delta Squad. It is time we eradicate this nuisance." He chuckles as he holds onto a familiar crowbar.

 **Author's note: well look at that, a new threat to the team. So many questions, who are the White Claws? Are the gems safe? Will Max conquer his past and move forward to find love? Will Cookie Cat reunite with his family!?...I don't know about the last one, but answers may be revealed next chapter. Hope you all enjoy...and let's hope America's future president doesn't ruin everything.**


	24. Hunted

"...The White Claws?"

"That's what he said. Do you know anything about them." Max and Steven just reported of their mission, successfully bubbling the corrupted gem, and fighting the strange man. Currently he was talking more so to Pearl since she was around longer than the others, but was willing to get as much information as possible from the others.

"Well, it seems impossible that they would still be trying to fight."

"So you do know them?"

"It's not that simple. They were a clan of humans back in what you called the Middle Ages. They held this belief that gems were demons in disguise."

"Well, humans were pretty religious heavy at the time. Go on."

"Rose would try to settle things diplomatically, never wanting to hurt a human, or any life on Earth. While she was able to convince few of them to not fight...they were immediately killed by their clan members, calling them traitors. They called themselves holy warriors of Earth, but they seemed more like egotistical savages."

"...I don't think I have ever heard a term more defining of human nature than "egotistical savages", I gotta write that down. Sorry, please continue."

"Well after seeing that, Rose made a decision to fight the clan leader. If she won, they were to disband and leave the gems alone. But if they won, she said she would give them her gem."

"Whoa, sounds like a risky gambit. But after seeing her in action, I'm guessing she won with ease."

"Not exactly, while she may have had the advantage as a warrior, she couldn't bring herself to kill him, not wanting to break her oath to protect all life on Earth. The leader took advantage of her mercy and struck her gem. While it thankfully didn't crack, an attack on any gems'... gem, is extremely painful. We thought for sure that Rose was in trouble and almost stepped in to fight, but she stopped us before we could. She dropped her sword and raised her shield. With concentration I haven't seen since the war, she deflected every blow of the leader's sword before disarming him completely. The leader was astonished, then went rambling on about how he felt like a disgrace for losing. He said that the only way to preserve his honor and dignity was through death. Rose would not grant him his wish though, so he took his own life by cutting out his own heart. Rose went to try and heal him, but the clan members refused to let her help. They carried off his dead body, and we never saw the White Claws ever again."

"Until today… but why now...after so much time." Max ponders what the White Claws were planning while Steven lets the story sink in.

"...I don't understand, why would they think you are all evil?"

"Steven…a lot of humans in that time hated anything they didn't understand. They were unintellectual, savage, and blindly thought that whatever they believe, is fact. Sometimes I see that in humans today. There is sin evident in all hearts of mankind, but it's up to people like us to help stop that evil and bring hope to those who need it." Max smiled and pet Steven's curly hair, making him smile and nod.

"Yeah...but what do we do now?"

"We wait." Garnet said while leaning against a wall. "They seem to be after gems, they will come after us. And we will be ready."

"Haha! Yeah! We can take those claw guys no problem." Amethyst said excitedly. The team seemed prepared for whatever came their way….except for a small object to break through the window and start beeping rapidly.

"GET DOWN!" Everyone dives for cover as the object explodes, shrapnel tearing the room apart. Two heavily armed soldiers wearing all black including the masks on their faces, and three white claw marks on their backs.

"This is Delta member 5A, no sight of the targets." One said as they looked around. Pearl was under a couch, holding Steven close while trying not to let dust bunnies get near her. Amethyst shape shifted into a lamp, Garnet was on the roof, and Max was behind the kitchen counter. He looks to Amethyst and Garnet, signaling them to take out the soldiers on the count of three. One...two...three!

Amethyst changes into a bear and swipes at a soldier, making him smash into a wall. Garnet drops on the other on and punches him square in the face.

"Nice, but there may be more outside. Pearl, please watch over Steven and find Lion if you can. Garnet, Amethyst and I will take out the rest of the soldiers." He looks to see Steven's concerned eyes. "Don't worry, we'll be safe, and we'll be sure to take them out non lethally. Speaking of which, if you get the chance Pearl, take away any suicide tablets the soldiers have. Alright, let's move!"

It was strange seeing Max act like a leader, but this was human territory, his expertise. The trio look carefully to see three more soldiers out on the beach.

"Okay, stay on guard, they may be human, but the mystery guy I met had a crowbar that broke Steven's bubble easily, they could have similar weapons.

"Got it." Amethyst summons her whips before using them to grab the soldiers' rifles and bringing them back for Garnet to smash.

"This is Delta member C9, we have confirmation of the targets, engaging now." The three on three battle began. Even without their rifles, they were definitely well trained. Max and one soldier were stuck striking and deflecting each other blow for blow. Amethyst's whips couldn't touch the soldier she was fighting, yet the soldier couldn't land a punch either. Garnet had a bit of trouble too, the soldier surprisingly strong as he stood his ground against Garnet as their hands were interlocked in a power struggle.

"Max! They aren't human!" Max looks to see Steven holding the mask up as Pearl shows the soldier was some disfigured mix of a human and gem. He would possibly pass for human if it wasn't for the gem shards that were fused into his skin, with glowing veins and cracks all over his body.

"What the fu-" He's cut off as the soldier finally kicks Max in the gut and launches him into the temple.

"Maxwell, I believe it is time we stop holding back." Garnet summons her large fists as she uppercuts the soldier, making him flash and poof into a naked man and several gem shards.

Amethyst wraps her whips around her soldier and squeezes until he poofs as well, naked human and shards.

"Alrighty then." Max goes on fire as he rushes the soldier he was fighting and dashes through him with one punch. A few seconds pass before the soldier falls onto his knees, poofs, and falls onto the ground, naked and with gem shards.

"I just don't get it. What are they?" Max inspects the human and shards before he hears a faint beeping. "GET AWAY FROM THE HUMANS!" Max yells out as the human bodies glow brightly and violently explode. He looks up, his vision hazy and ears ringing. He sees Steven come to him and gently kiss his forehead, healing him from the blast.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah thanks, what about you?"

"Don't worry, everyone is okay...except for those soldiers."

"No need to feel sad Steven, I don't think they were human."

"Huh? What do you mean?" They all look to Max questioningly as he looks over the debri of where the bodies exploded. He looks through the ash and sand and finds some pieces of metal and synthetic fiber. "They seem to have been androids...but why mixed with gem shards?" He looks over the shards carefully, looking to see that the shards dulled and look lifeless. "Oh thank goodness, they're not real gems. These are natural gems on Earth, not like you four. If I had to guess, I'd say this was an experiment."

"What do you mean?"

"...They are trying to see if they can use the energy of gems to create super humans. I'm guessing these androids were just test subjects before they would decide on using real humans. If they were this strong with average gems, then what would happen if they were to use live ones?"

The question was heavy in the air as Max got up and looked at the Crystal gems. "We need to stop them before it's too late, who knows if they possibly have corrupted gems and humans ready for their sick experiment."

"We're with you Max...but um, does anyone know where their base is."

"...GOD DAMN IT!"

 **Author's Note: hey everybody, just wanted to say sorry for using the word 'gem' a lot, but it is literally the name of their race, and I have no idea what else to call it. Crystal maybe? I don't know, I also wanted to say thanks for so much support on my second story. I'll make sure to update both regularly. I hope you all enjoy.**


	25. Information

"So why are we in the bad part of the country?" Pearl asked as the five of them were currently in a more ghetto and sketchy area. They were each in their own respective outfits, looking particularly 'gangster'. Dear lord I am not good at describing this kinda shit. Basically, this is the kinda place where you can get shanked and mugged by anyone that thinks you're too weak or stupid.

"I know this isn't a very likable place, but I know a guy here who can give me all the info I need about gangs, clans, pimps, anyone that I can take out for either profit, or to get in good with the police. He should have some information about the White Claw if they've been active. Just remember to stay close to me. Oh and don't take anything they sell."

"What kinda stuff?"

"I can't say the exact names unless I wanna be suspected as 'nark'. Just don't take any drinks, food, blue candy, or coke."

"What's wrong with candy and Coca Cola?" Steven asked innocently.

"Ugh, why are you so precious. Just don't, trust me when I say it's bad." Max leads them through crowds and alleyways. Anyone who looks at them funny, Max just shows them his glove on his left hand. On the back of the glove was a small image of a flaming raven.

"Why do they look so nervous about your glove?" Amethyst asked.

"It's not the glove, it's the insignia. I made a reputation for myself, calling me by different names. Some call me Firecracker, Hunter, but mostly the call me the Burning Night. Probably because I mostly attack during the night and use fire based weapons and explosives."

"Hey sexy, why don't you and I find room to ourselves?~" Some sleazy looking drunkard was hitting on Amethyst. Before she could pull out her whip, Max shows off his symbol and the man's eyes widen. "S-sorry! I-I didn't know she was your bitch." Max knocked the guy's lights out with a quick punch.

"Don't talk about women that way, scumbag."

"...I could have easily kicked his butt."

"Yes, but you're better off staying out of fights. Last thing you need is to make a name for yourself here." Amethyst just pouts and looks away, not wanting to let him see her blush. Soon the five of them finally make it to a strange looking house. He knocks on the door and some bearded guy holding a hunting rifle comes out.

"I said I'll pay my rent when I get it!"

"Calm down Chuck, it's just me."

"Firecracker? Well happy birthday to me. What are you doing here?"

"I needed some information, for old time's sake."

"What do you need? Some dickhead slap one of your girls? Pick on your son there?"

"T-they're not, I mean, s-shut up!" Max blushes furiously.

"Hehehe, still as easy to tease as when we first met. I don't need to get into your business. So what who you hunting now?"

"We're looking for some group called the White Claws."

"White Claws? Let me look, you all come in and sit down." Max nods and smiles, leading everyone inside. As they wait, Chuck brings out his dusty laptop. He searches through any files and interactions that mentioned the White Claws. "Hmm, says here they were some ragtag group of weirdos in the Middle Ages. They went into hiding because of their leader killing himself in a drunken stupor."

"Or so it says...keep going."

"Apparently they had an oath to stay together even as years pass, passing down their teachings to their children. In recent knows, they've been robbing museums and stores for some of the finest gemstones, and even taking military grade technology. Some scientists and surgeons have been reported as kidnapped. Whoever these guys are, they have definitely been busy."

"Interesting. But what about their base of operations?"

"Hmm, no exact coordinates, but there has been reports of missing detectives and others searching for the White Claws in this area." He shows a highlighted circle of where they may be.

"That will do. Any captured gems we will be able to sense." Garnet said, ignoring the confused look from Chuck.

"Alright! We got a plan!"

"Well good luck Ignitus, I know you can-" He's cut off as a loud bang was heard and his head comes off. Max looks out the window to see a sniper wearing the White Claws uniform.

"Fucking sniper! We gotta get him!" Max busts through the window and chases after the sniper, the others following behind. The sniper packs up his gear and flees, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Max follows after the sniper and dives at them, only for the sniper to put something into their mouth and dissolve into dust. Max lands on the ground and pants heavily.

"Damn it, lost them."

"Max!" He looks behind and sees Pearl has caught up with him. "What happened?"

"He took a suicide tablet. What is it with these guys and killing themselves so easily?"

"I don't know, we better go back to the others."

"Good idea." They were about to go until Max hears gunfire and looks to see some White Claw members were there to ambush them, armed with Gatling guns. "well shit." Max and Pearl run as fast as they can, trying to lose their pursuers. Soon they go into an alleyway and hide, seeming to lose them.

"Looks like we got away."

"I can't believe this, they see me to be everywhere! Why do they want to kill us so bad?! Rose did nothing to them, she was sweet and kind and they attacked us. What do they want now, Rose is gone…"

"...is that what you believe?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I personally don't think Rose is gone. I think in a way, she still exists. Maybe not physically, but in her gem. She is there guiding Steven, and helping him grow strong and wise, but most of all loving."

"..."

"Tell me, do you love Steven for himself...or only because he has Rose's gem?"

"I-I, why do you ask?"

"...don't tell Steven...but it's a secret he told me. He thinks you all don't really love him, you only think of Rose whenever you see him. A few times he has nightmares of you three leaving him, or killing him in an attempt to get Rose back. He doesn't show it, but deep down he hates himself because he believes he is the reason Rose isn't here and why you all went through such heartache. I try and help him, make him understand what happened wasn't his fault, and that you all love him, but he still thinks that everyone would be happier if he never existed."

"..." She had tears in her eyes as she tries to stifle her crying. "I'm so sorry, I never wanted him to feel like that. I will say this with all my heart, and I will tell Steven later…he is absolutely precious to me. I did love Rose, but if given the choice, I would keep Steven. Rose made her choice for Steven to exist, and I will respect that. And after so many years living with Steven, I knew one thing...I love him. I still remember when he was little and tried to call us all mommy...we told him to stop because we weren't his real mother...but deep down I loved it. I never want to lose Steven."

"...I'm glad to hear that. It really makes me happy to know you all truly care for him."

"How about you? You say you see him like a brother, but is that true?"

"Absolutely...he showed me the happier things in life that I grew blind to. He is an inspiration, and so are you, Amethyst, and Garnet. All of you helped me learn to smile."

"...Max… I'm sorry that we haven't, said anything about your confession."

"It's fine, I know things won't work out. I'm too human for your tastes, Garnet is a relationship, and Amethyst has some stuff to work out."

"...well, Garnet may be a relationship, but she is also her own gem in a way, she is free to do as she wishes. Amethyst may have some troubles, but it never hurts to be there to listen and help. As for me...my dislike for humans may have stemmed from how Rose would sometimes have relations with them. I was jealous, but I never showed her my true feelings, so she was never mine to lose. After spending time with Steven and Greg in this fancy hotel, I learned not to put my hatred on them, their is still so much in life. Maybe I can move on, and...I thought...maybe-" she's cut as she hears footsteps. Max looks to see the White Claws looking around again. They were coming closer to their alleyway.

"Shit, this isn't good."

"What do we do?!"

"...human nature is that we are very uncomfortable to public displays of affection."

"Huh?" She squeaks as Max holds her close and kisses her passionately, making sure they looked hidden but were obviously making out. The White Claw members check the alleyway.

"Oh uh, sorry for disturbing you two." The two soldiers awkwardly all away, allowing Max to immediately pull off of Pearl.

"Y-you can kill me later, for now we gotta go." Pearl just nods, trying to put on a poker face as they finally find the others.

"Pearl! Max!" Steven cheers as he hugs them both. "Where were you two?"

"We had to lose these White Claw soldiers, they were part of this ambush. We can't stand around anymore, we gotta go to the base and finish them off."

"Alright! Let's rip those punks apart...must have been some chase, you two look all flustered." Amethyst noticed.

"Y-yes, they were very persistent. Now let's move on." Pearl said in a panicky manner as Garnet just smiles slightly.

"Well then, to the warp pad!" The Crystal Gems get onto the warp pad as they go to look for the White Claws and finish them off.


	26. Maximum

"GAAAAAH! I hate flies! I hate dung beetles! ALL OF MY HATE FOR BUGS!"

Max continued ranting as he looked through the forest. When the team went to the area that was hypothesized to be the White Claws' home base, they came across a forest and split up to cover more ground. Unfortunately no matter how old Max got, his hatred of insects would not dwindle. Especially since some mosquitos were currently using Max as an all you can eat buffet.

"Step off!" He finally grew to angry and went on fire, making the mosquitos fly away. "Haha! Max 1, Bugs 0." It was too early to celebrate though as his bright flames attracted some moths. "OH NO!" He ran as fast as he can before tripping over something and falling into a pond. He slowly rises up with a lily pad on his head. "Now how did Rose Quartz see the beauty in this place?" His question was answered as he looked to see Steven currently whistling a tune as cute forest critters sang with him, making the forest seem happy and alive.

"Oh hey Steven!" Max called out and waved to the musically gifted boy.

"Hi Max!... What are you doing in the water?"

"It's a long story." He walks out and quickly heats up his body to evaporate any wetness on his person. "Find anything?"

"No sign of the White Claws, but they have been here. Some of these animals were really hurt, but I sed my healing spit to help them."

"Interesting, but why would they attack woodland animals?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it."

"Well we should try to find the others, maybe they have some information we can use." Just as they were about to leave though, the animals ears perked up and they all scattered. "...We need to hide."

"B-but where?"

"Uh, the pond! Bubble us so we can breathe though."

"Got it!" Steven puts them both in a bubble as they go inside the water.

They try to stay quiet as they see a team of White Claw members carrying a cage with a mother bear and some cubs trapped inside. Steven wanted to jump out and free them, but Max held him back, knowing that this was the only chance they had of finding the base. They followed them from far behind, not wanting to get caught. After a few minutes, Max and Steven come across a clearing, but the White Claws are nowhere to be seen.

"What the heck!? They couldn't have disappeared." Max looks around frantically, but Steven stays in one place, staring in front of them. "Steven what are you looking at?"

"It's just, we've been in this forest for a while, suddenly we find a clearing with no trees. If you look straight ahead, the trees don't seem to move at all even though there is a breeze, like it's just a picture."

Max stood next to Steven, and sure enough he was right. They gingerly take a few steps forward until they touch something that feels like metal.

"Something is invisible here...but how?" Before they could get try to figure out what was going on, a loud siren starts blaring. They look to see an invisible door slide open and White Claw troops come out armed with heavy weaponry.

"This is soldier I-8, we have confirmation of two humans. Permission to eradicate?"

"M-Max, what do we do?"

"We run." Max puffs up his cheeks before blowing smoke and ash into the air, then grabs Steven and rushes into the base. The soldiers fire and chase after the duo, but Steven summons his shield and deflects any shots. "Keep it up Steven, I see an elevator!"

The elevator ahead of him opens and two soldiers come out with rifles ready. Max glares before igniting his hands and throwing two blasts of fire at the soldiers, them pushing them out of the elevator.

"Max hurry!"

"There's no buttons!" Max panics as the soldiers get closer so he takes a chance and uses his obsidian hand to pierce through a keycard slot, making it fortunately activate. The elevator doors slide shut, and leave Max and Steven safe for now.

"Oh dear lord, we made it."

"Yeah, but where are we going?"

"My best guess? Deeper down the rabbit hole."

"...but rabbits don't have claws."

"It's a figure of speech." Soon the door open to reveal a dimly lit corridor. Max and Steven cautiously walk out and search around. Max summons a small flame and brightens it in order to reveal more of the room, yet he almost wishes he didn't. What they see are multiple humans, animals, and corrupted gems of all shapes and sizes, caged and mutilated.

Steven covers his mouth in fear and his eyes water. "W-who would do this? Why would anyone hurt them like this?"

"...they're experiments. Each one used as a guinea pig for their sick tests." He flinches as he sees a claw reach out for him from behind a cage. He uses his fire to see the monstrosity as some weird deformed combination of a human, animal, and gem. He can see a foggy and obviously corrupted gemstone on the head of human. The human eyes were milky white and looking around frantically. The upper body was human and male, yet the lower half and arms resembled some strange bird like features. The legs were scrawny and clawed, where his arms used to be were now black feathered wings. The being looks at Max, trying to talk but only makes horrid screeching noises, like a strangled crow. Max looks at the creature sadly and pets his head. "I promise you, I will stop the ones who did this to you...I swear it." This seems to comfort the being a little as it walks to the back of the cage and tries to sleep.

"...I know this is hard for you Steven but-"

"No...it's okay Max...I try so hard to see the good in people, but where is the good in this?... I understand that you will have to make a decision...if you think the best choice is to kill the leader...I won't stop you."

"Steven...I-" He's cut off, surprise, as he hears soldiers coming. "We gotta go." Steven nods as they find a stairway and run up. "Something isn't right, these soldiers are everywhere." As soon as they breach through a door, they are blinded by a bright light.

Once the light fades and their eyes adjust, they look to see they are in a coliseum of sorts. In the stands were many cheering figures with the White Claws symbol on their clothing. It wasn't just soldiers, but regular looking humans, parents, children, elderly. In the center was a tall muscular man with a bald head and a white beard. He had cold blue eyes and was wearing a long white robe with claw marks emblazoned on it.

"Hello little humans, you have fought well to make your way here, but I'm afraid your journey has come to an end." The coliseum roars in agreement, cheering him on.

Max clenches his fist before shouting out in a rage. "ENOUGH! Who do you think you are? Kidnapping and experimenting on living beings, killing innocent people? Tell me why I shouldn't go up there and kick your butt?!" The audience heckles Max but he just sneers at them.

The robed man holds up a hand and everyone went silent. "Who am I you ask? I am the leader of this clan, I am Cedric Eisenhart, and we are the White Claws. Our ancestors wished to protect the human race and lead them to prosperity. Our mission today is no different. As time passed we have built our own community of humans, who will soon leave and guide the human race into becoming the most powerful species in existence. We shall grow to the point where no animal, alien, or god could stand before us."

"Figures, a bunch of egotistical neanderthals with a superiority complex. What does this have to do with the gems, why are you experimenting on them?" Max questions.

Cedric just smirks softly as he presses a small button and behind him, a cage with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are tied up with strange ropes that glowed a sickly yellow. "The gem race are the enemies of humans. They not only humiliated my ancestor, but intended to destroy all life on Earth for their own gain. Every gem is a monstrous beast that humans must tame and control. Their abilities are unfit for their weak forms. So my greatest scientists have found ways to take the energy from the gems, and grant it to us, making us more powerful than ever! Of course, there have been some errors and some humans ended up deformed, but sacrifices are needed. With this power, we will shape the Earth the way we wish. We will be titans of a new world order, we will be powerful, we will be immortal and youthful, WE WILL BE-"

"Insane...you're all insane. The gems may have initially intended to use Earth for their own purpose, but rebellion began. A gem named Rose Quartz and many others chose to instead fight and protect the Earth. Even today those gems fight to let the humans and any other life on Earth live how they want. You call them monsters, but the corruption you have seen are the battle scars they have gained from the horrible war to protect this planet. You don't have to hurt so many people for your cause. Maybe we can work together differently, we can make the world better, but not with a war, but with peace. Please end this bloodshed, by working together we can make this world better." With Max's speech done, Steven looked at him with a wide smile. He was about to hug him but then heard a slow clap from Cedric.

"Amusing, you think we can all work together? The gems are an inferior race, and I will not let them live anywhere but underneath our mighty feet. This farce is over, kill them both." The crowd cheers as a gate open, showing two soldiers holding onto chains as they bring out a hulking beast. It seemed mostly human, except for the blue crystals surrounding it's left eye and the gem where the eye should be. The being had massive muscles and a stance similar to a gorilla. It snorts as it looks at Max and Steven. "Behold! This is Goliath, our first fusion of gems and humans. Goliath, attack the naysayers!"

Goliath snarls and throws aside the soldiers before bounding after Max and Steven.

"Max, h-he's getting closer, what do we do?"

Max was silent before remembering the fusion he met earlier, the bird boy stuck in the cage. He walks forward slowly as Goliath only charged faster. Max stood still with no expression on his face. Steven only decided to trust him as he walks next to Max. The Crystal gems struggled to try and tell the two to run away, but they didn't listen. Goliath was about to ram into Max until Max put out his obsidian hand.

Goliath abruptly stopped and sniffed his hand. The crowd and Cedric were absolutely shocked by the scene. Max gently moved his hand and put his hand on the gem where his eye once was. "Your name...it used to be… Thomas, right?" The beast's eye widens in surprise, staying still as Max continued. "You and the gem...you're both in a lot of pain...let us help." Goliath, or Thomas, stayed still as Max and Steven smile.

"I am Maxwell Ignitus, my gem is Obsidian."

"I am Steven Universe, my gem is Rose Quartz."

"And together we wish to set you free." They say simultaneously as they hug the fusion. Steven licks one finger and presses the healing spit to his chest, while Max holds onto Thomas's head. His obsidian hand and Steven's belly button gem shine brightly. The glow enveloped the fused being before they floated gently in the air. Goliath's form split into two before settling on the ground. Before them now was Thomas the human, peacefully asleep, and a gem to rest.

"W-what is this? What have you done!?" Cedric demanded.

"Goliath was hurting, he never wanted this pain you forced on him. Thomas and the gem only wanted freedom, to live as they used to. Steven and I are half gem, half human, we knew exactly how to heal their heart and mind… thanks for trusting me on that Steven."

"No problem, I didn't even know I could do that, it just felt natural." He smiles as he goes to pick up the gem and bubble it, but then the gem is blasted and shattered in his hands. Cedric had a furious scowl on his face, his arm raised as he takes aim and obliterates the sleeping human.

"WORTHLESS CRETINS! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND RUIN MY LEGACY!? You're pathetic attempts of peace mean nothing here. YOU SHALL DIE BY MY HAND!" The crowd didn't know how to respond, seeing their leader kill in cold blood, and their supposed enemies heal Goliath, it was as if their world was upside down. Cedric jumps down from the stands and removes his robe, showing his chest was fused with several different gems of many shapes and sizes.

"I don't think diplomacy will work now, it's time to fight Steven." Max pulls out his shotgun from his cloak and takes aim.

"You got it dude." Steven summons his shield.

Cedric attacks in a blind rage, thrusting out his arms to deliver powerful blasts of energy. Max and Steven dodge out of the way as they rush toward Cedric. Max fires his shotgun rapidly, but they have no clear effect. Steven throws his shield but Cedric just smashes it with his bare hands.

"USELESS!" Cedric grabs Max by the collar and throws him onto the ground. He was about to stomp on his head but Steven rolled under and summoned his bubble pushing back Cedric. The White Claw leader roars and repeatedly attacks Steven's bubble. Steven tried to hold it up as long as he can but Cedric was too powerful. He smashes the bubble and went to attack Steven, but Max recovered and pulled Steven out of the way.

"Let's get cooking." Max goes on fire as he rushes at Cedric with a flurry of punches, only for Cedric to grab onto his head with both hands and tries to crush his skull. Max yells out in pain before dissipating into ash, then reappearing behind Cedric. He has his obsidian hand glow and blast fire hot enough to burn down a two story building into nothing but ashes in a few seconds. Yet Cedric is barely fazed as he walks out of the fire and kicks Max away.

"Don't you see now, your little crusade was pointless. You are nothing compared to us, just a child who deserves nothing more but to rot in the pits of hell."

"That's not true!" Steven runs and protects Max with his body. "Max is a great person. He trained all his life to become stronger and he did. He is an amazing gem, human, friend… and a fantastic brother."

"Steven…"

"Useless worm, you boast about him but it means nothing. You hold the gem of Rose Quartz but look at yourself, a weak kitten who could never live up to be the proud lion you once were."

"Leave him alone! Steven doesn't have to be Rose, he is perfect the way he is. He's funny, kind, strong...and I couldn't ask for a better person to call my brother." Despite both being beaten down, the two stand close together, unwilling to back down.

"Well then, you two can bond more..IN THE AFTERLIFE!" Cedric rushes at them but Max and Steven stand strong.

"WE'RE FAMILY!" A bright flash is seen, followed by a massive explosion that knocks back Cedric. As the dust settles, everyone looks to see not two, but one person there.

 ***insert epic music***

Standing there was a new fusion, skin crimson red with dark pink stripes across his upper torso. A familiar gem rested where his belly button would be. His arms and legs were covered with a powerful black superheated rock. Speaking of arms, they seem to have four, all powerful and ready for action. His eyes slowly open to show eyes that tell many stories. This fusion was someone who was created with the kindness and encouragement Max and Steven gave to each other.

"W-what are you?" Cedric asked in fear.

"..." He was silent until crossing his lower set of arms, and his upper right arm used his thumb to point at himself.

"I am Maximum Quartz."

"I-I don't care what your name is, you're still nothing!" Cedric goes to punch him, but Maximum just grabs the fist with his left hand from the upper set. His lower arms grab onto Cedric. His eyes glint as he reels back his right arm then delivers a devastating punch, creating a shock wave that everyone in the audience can feel. Cedric was too stunned to move as Maximum tucks in all four arms.

"Time to end this. Centennial Star Punch." Maximum Quartz then starts punching rapidly with every arm. Cedric was being absolutely pulverized by the fusion's blur of punches. If someone were to look closely, they would see he stopped after his 99th punch. His upper right arm glows bright, a pink bubble surrounding it as the fist glows brightly. "Grand Finale!" He throws the punch as the bubble explodes into an inferno, launching Cedric into the air who was unconscious and covered in soot. Maximum catches Cedric before they hit the ground. He lays him down before glaring at the White Claw audience "Turn your lives around for the better, or no mercy will be shown." He goes and frees the Crystal gems, but before they can celebrate, they look to see Cedric trying to get up.

"P-please I beg you, I-I can't go to jail now. I can still help make the world better. If y-you heal me, I swear to do something better for everyone."

"Wait! Don't trust him, he won't follow on his word." Pearl said warningly, wanting to just leave.

"..." He sighs as he goes to Cedric and licks his finger. "I can't leave someone like this. Steven is a part of me." He puts the finger to Cedric's head, healing him before walking away.

"Y-you healed me...maybe this is a second chance...maybe I can make a difference...maybe…I was wrong….NO!" In a flash of rage he blasts with all of his might. Maximum looks back and clenches his teeth before roaring loudly and destroying the blast with column of fire, and incinerating Cedric completely.

Days later, the White Claws were arrested, and the gems helped bubble away any corrupted gems. With Maximum Quartz, any forced flesh and gem fusions were separated. But after their victory, Max and Steven didn't unfuse for a while. To have killed someone, it was a lot for Steven to handle, but as Maximum Quartz, Max was able to comfort Steven until he was ready to come out. Everyone was a bit worried until the fifth day. The door was opened and Steven slowly walked in. The gems rushed out and hugged him close. Max stood in the doorway silently, watching them all reunite. They wanted to include him in the hug but he denied it, just wanting to sleep. He gently lays down, but all four of them get on the bed with him, a small little sleepover that helped him smile. It wasn't easy, but now they can rest, they won this battle, and they will win any other battle in the future.


	27. The Past

**Warning: nothing fully explicit, but I doubt you wanna have someone find you reading specific parts of this chapter.**

After such a fiasco, the gang too some time to rest and relax. Max and Steven played around with fusion, becoming Maximum Quartz and training or just having fun. Maximum was eager to introduce himself to the other gems, Garnet smiling wide, Amethyst checking out his impressive muscles, and Pearl just still astonished by how effortlessly they fused and how happy they were. When first seeing Maximum Quartz, he looked like the ultimate warrior. Yet without any threats, the fusion seemed like a happy and excited child without a care in the world.

Speaking of Pearl, things between her and Maxwell have been...quiet to say the least. Max confronted her and said he was ready to let her kick his ass, but she said he was excused because it was all for the mission. Of course neither of them believed what she said, Max noticing the light blue blush on her face as she steered clear of him.

After some weeks of relaxation, nobody would have expected the morning where they're all woken up by a bugle horn and finding a fucking tank outside the house.

"What the heck!?" Max feel out of bed as he grabbed the nearest thing he could find and ran outside. "Who's there!? I got a….cantaloupe and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Is that how you greet your old pal?"

"...shit."

Steven gathered the gems in a panic as they went outside to fight whatever threat has shown its face. "Don't worry Max! We're here to help!" They come out to see a very noticeable tank, Max, and some strange woman in a marine soldier uniform. She had short brown hair that reached her shoulders, a surprisingly cute face adorned with sunglasses, and a fit body accentuated by her uniform. Currently she and Max were in a stare down, a smug grin on her face while Max looked displeased with this situation.

"Don't waste your energy, she's no threat."

"Um, last time I checked, our win loss ratio is 99 me, 98 you. So suck it!"

"Piss off! Why don't I show you how much stronger I've gotten?!"

"Come on pretty boy, I'll kick your ass any day...except for Saturday. Saturday is my me day."

The two continued to bicker, almost forgetting the Crystal gems who were watching bewildered.

"Wow, they fight kinda like Amethyst and Pearl." Steven commented out loud, causing Garnet to snicker. The two gems were about to retort until they see Max and the girl finally start getting physical. She flicked his nose, he pushes her. She puts him in a headlock, he flips her onto her back. Now it was an all out clash between the two. Surprisingly the girl was able to match him in combat flawlessly, having a fighting style almost identical to his. Garnet decided to intervene before the two really hurt each other, picking them up and separating them.

"G-garnet, come on. I'm not a child."

"Yeah you are."

"Says the girl making faces at me!" The girl was currently sticking her tongue out at him before looking to Garnet with a innocent smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about Max."

"Don't think you can fool me." Garnet sets them down but keeps them at least five feet from each other.

"Well I guess I better introduce myself, I'm Corporal Tempus. Normally I'm not allowed to give my full name, but fuck it. I'm Caroline Tempus."

"Shut it Carly, just explain why you're here."

"Oh you haven't called me that nickname in so long, did you fall for me again?~"

"K-knock it off or I will pour magma all over you!"

She just giggles at his blushing face, the others looking very confused.

"Just what is going on?" Steven asked confused.

"Alright, let me explain. I didn't become this strong of a fighter just on my own. Carly here is the one who trained me to become such a skilled human fighter. I trained with many marines to become an expert warrior, but it was Carly who really unlocked my potential. By training with her, we found ourselves becoming stronger than everyone else, soon the strongest of all and becoming extremely skilled with almost all weaponry. After some time, I decided to leave because I wanted to continue my travels. When I my plan to Carly, she didn't take it well."

"What are you talking about?"

"You slapped me across the face and called me a good for nothing deserter."

"Oh...r-right, but I made up for it!"

"Unfortunately some of the marines believed that I was abandoning the marines because I was a spy or traitor. I barely made it out if it wasn't for Carly activating the emergency siren, and allowed me to leave through the panic...while I'm grateful for that, the slap and name calling was uncalled for."

"Well you're the one who left me, I mean all of us."

"I told you from the start I only joined to get stronger, at the time I personally didn't care whether or not every country goes to war over stupid disputes. I didn't want to become strong just to be used as a puppet, I grew strong to beat anyone who intended to hurt me. And if you're mad at me, then why are you here for me...speaking of which, how do you look so young? Didn't we meet when I was around 40?"

"You said you were 25."

"And you said you loved me, we both lied."

"W-whoa whoa wait. You two dated?" Amethyst asked, clearly interested for some drama.

"W-well, not exactly." Max said as he looked away with a blush.

"Things in the military were stressful. As we got closer we developed some bonds and found a form of...stress relief~"

*Flashback*

"FUCK DON'T STOP!~"

"Teasing me all day like that, I'll make sure you won't be able to walk straight for a week!"

"Ahn!~"

*back to the present*

"N-not in front of Steven! And you still haven't answered my questions."

"Well, with our training I became one of the best of the best. I was allowed to test a new miracle pill that allowed the best soldiers to be eternally youthful. This way we're always combat ready in case of a war."

"Bullshit. Human adaptation in medicine and science isn't that good."

"Oh please, we have tons of stuff secret. We got hoverboards, jetpacks, the cure for cancer."

"Wait was that last one?"

"Not important. What is important is that I was sent here to recruit you and your...friends? For a mission in helping us exterminate any leftover members of the White Claws. We have reason to believe that they will be coming after you since you did kill their leader. All we ask is that you let me stay here with you and send reports to HQ about what I find."

"Absolutely not, I won't let you reveal any secrets about the gems and allow dirty greedy human hands to ruin what we have worked on." The gems seemed to approve of Max's decision, but Caroline wasn't about to give up so easily.

"Okay, what if I promise to only write about the White Claws, anything about your 'gem gang' or whatever will be omitted."

"Better, but the answer is still no."

She sighs as she pulls out a walkie talkie. "Time for the big guns. Okay boys drop it in."

"What are you doing?"

"Just bringing some incentives~" A helicopter swoops in before releasing a large crate and having it land on the sandy beach. Carly giggles mischievously as she opens the crate to reveal...tons of grade A organic milk? Surely this won't be enough to deter our protagonist...and he's drooling over it.

"I-is that?" Max stammers as he looks at the heavenly elixirs.

"Yep, a lifetime supply of milk just for you if you agree to let me stay here."

"Curse you, using one of my favorite things against me." Thing is, Max was never properly fed as a baby. He was so detested that his mother only gave him formula, and even then mostly forgot about it. This caused Max to have an extreme desire for milk, almost never satisfied unless he drank a gallon. Carly knew it was one of his biggest weaknesses, well that and another ace up her sleeve if this didn't work.

"So what is it gonna be?"

"...I'm probably gonna hate myself later, but the answer is still no."

"Um, Max, it's honestly not a big deal anymore. We were talking about it and decided that Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl will take turns carefully watching her and making sure she doesn't do anything bad." Steven explained.

"Still, I'm uneasy about this,"

"Jeez Max, still so stubborn even today. Fine, if this is the only way to convince you." She blushes as she slowly undid her top and, WHOA WAIT!

"M-my last bargaining chip. I-if you let me stay, YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE TO MY BREASTS!" She yells out as she flashes her impressively large breasts at him, Garnet making sure to cover Steven's eyes.

"C-Carly!" Max blushes harder as he looks away. He was always a breast man, and didn't want to become a lust muddled mess by looking at her large melons. "O-okay okay! Y-you can stay, j-just cover yourself before I l-lose control."

Carly smiles happily and covers herself up, not willing to admit that she always enjoyed teasing him and his love for her big breasts. Plus if the reports were true about how much trouble he and the gems go through, she knew this was going to be a fun time. With some time, a bed was set up for her in Max's room, per her instructions. She said it was what her bosses told her to do, but everyone knew she just wanted to toy with Maxwell. Max just tried to ignore it as he partook in tons of his favorite drink, gulping down bottles of milk like a desert survivor drinking water. After the long day of getting everything situated. He went fr his bed to rest, but when he opened the door, he wasn't expecting Carly full nude on his bed.

"Oh hi Max~ What? You forgot I like to sleep in the nude?~"

"I-I know what you're doing, and I'm n-not falling for it."

"This doesn't have anything to do with the mission Max, I just wanted to reconnect for old times sake."

"..."

"Well maybe this will convince you~" She grabs a bottle of milk she was hiding and pours some of the cold tantalizing liquid on her stunning bosom. Max didn't even think twice before pouncing on her, making her squeal in delight.

 **Author's note: I may have to change from T rating to M rating after this chapter, but tell me what you all think. If I should change the rating, go on and tell me. If you'd like, I'll make a chapter about the sex scene above. Enjoy!**


	28. Stake outs and make outs

***nsfw***

Max suckles on Caroline's tender nipples eagerly, licking away any remaining milk from her breasts and stripping his pants and underwear off to free his horny erection.

"Still so naughty~ Your cock getting so big and hard just for me, you're such a pervert~"

"Says the one literally flashing her tits at me."

"I don't know what you're talking about~" She giggles as she strips all the way, showing off all of her strong and voluptuous body for him. "I missed this, you were always my favorite sex toy~"

Max growls in anger and thrusts his hips, shoving his thick cock inside her, making the marine squeak in surprise. She pouts at him before lightly papping his face. "Bad boy~"

"Shut up baby I know it." He nips and sucks in her neck as he starts fucking her relentlessly, making her scream in pleasure and making her glad that she soundproofed the room earlier. She holds him close and relaxes as he goes to town on her cunt.

"Mmm~ s-still so rough~ Are you gonna cum soon? Gonna paint my insides white with your hot gooey cum?~"

Her dirty talk was getting to Max as he edged closer to his orgasm. This prompted him to go faster and give a nice bite to her shoulder, making her scream out in pleasure. "Give it to me Max!~ Cum in me!~"

Max yells out in ecstasy as he pumps her with all of his pent up semen. Carly moans loudly as she cums with him, her pussy milking him for every last drop.

 ***nsfw end***

In the afterglow of the incredibly pleasurable climax, Max hugs her close and kisses her cheek softly. Carly rolls her eyes with a smirk and pushes him off.

"Cool it Romeo, you know I'm not into that mushy shit. Just keep your hands off and maybe I'll let you sniff my hair or whatever romantic stuff you like."

Max only sighs before moving to his side of the bed to sleep.

So a new member has joined the team. Caroline seemed to get along with the others well enough. She was kind to Steven in a sisterly manner, had a fun time playing pranks or wrestling with Amethyst, sparred with Pearl and they both shared military tactics without revealing anything too confidential. As for Garnet, things seemed to go well at first, at least until Caroline tried flirting with her. Then Garnet unfused to show Ruby and Sapphire, thus making Carly's brain explode. No not literally, but she did seem broken. Maxwell explained the whole thing about the gems being thousands of years old and being aliens who protect the Earth. Caroline took the news well...and by that I mean she then went asking hundreds of questions like an alien fanatic. Max was able to get her to slow down, and helped answer as many questions as possible, all the while making sure she promised not to give any important information to her bosses.

After a week, Caroline decided to go for a more direct approach of looking for the White Claws. She tried interrogating some citizens, only for Max and Steven to pull her away. She was instead allowed to hold a stake out at night to look for any suspicious people. At 11:00 pm, Max decided to go and check on her, while bringing a cup of coffee for her as well.

"Thanks, I could never get used to this stuff, but at least it keeps me awake." She sips lightly from the cup as she looks through her binoculars.

"Find anything yet?"

"No, but I'm onto something."

"Really? Let me see."

"No, these are my binoculars."

"Quit being a child and let me use them."

"I know what you are but what am I?"

"Real mature." He pushes her out of the way and looks through the binoculars, seeing it was aimed at the peculiar kid named Onion. "What is this?"

"I'm telling you, that kid is hiding something!"

"And I thought I was paranoid."

She just sticks her tongue out at him and takes the binoculars back, looking across the whole town. So far nothing dangerous, some people out for a late night stroll.

"...ugh, maybe you should go back to your base, there are obviously no threats."

"You don't know for sure. And no need to try and get rid of me."

"I'm not trying to get rid of you."

"Then would you let me stay if I had no obligations?"

"..."

"What happened Max? We were pretty close and now you act like I'm a stain on your cloak. I know you had bad relationships, but why would that make us not friends."

"It's just that...I moved on. I'm far stronger than ever before. Obsidian and I are something beyond the human race, we aren't limited to the weak human form, I can control fire for crying out loud!"

"So that means I meant nothing to you?"

"You and I both know that's not true. I just...Steven and the gems are now a group I feel like I really belong to."

"So you love them?"

"...yeah, I do. Steven is an awesome person I can call brother, and the gems make my heart skip a beat and give me butterflies in my stomach. I care for them all and want to stay with them. I don't want to be anchored by humans anymore."

"So I'm just an anchor?"w

"You keep pulling me back into this relationship without love. Yeah we get intimate, but I want more than just pleasure, I want love, I want to be able hold and kiss and hold someone close to me, someone who makes me feel special, and I feel the gems can probably give me that."

"..."

"Look, the White Claws are done for. Steven and I took out the leader, the head of the snake. Even if any escaped and are out for revenge, the crystal gems can take them out no problem."

"Jeez, 'Crystal gems this, crystal gems that' I get it, you kiss the land they walk on."

"What are you going on about? I don't act like that. I'm just saying they are intelligent and powerful, they can take on any threat that comes their way."

"Oh you naughty boy, work the shaft~"

"What?"

"Oh sorry, I love dirty talking when I see someone 'sucking a dick.'"

"Yeah, you would know a thing or two about sucking dick."

"You calling me a slut!?"

"Oh I'm sorry, is that too mean? Well how about 'bitch!?'"

"Arrogant dick!"

"Stupid cow!"

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck you!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"FUCK YOU!"

They both stare at each other angrily before kissing each other in frustration. They get onto the floor, about to get down and dirty before Max's eyes glanced to the telescope and saw something interesting.

"Wait what?" He pushes away from Caroline and looks into the telescope.

"What the fuck? You can't just get me all hot and bothered and leave me high and dry."

"First of all, you did that to me all the time. Second, shut the fuck up because I see someone wearing a White Claw jacket."

"Huh?" She looks into the telescope and sees someone walking around with a jacket with the exact same insignia as the White Claws. "Well looks like we found our guy."

"Or girl. Or whatever gender they identify as. I don't judge." Max said with a shrug.

"Shut up, it's a criminal, that's all I care about, let's go!"

"What about the gems?"

"You can blow their dicks later." She jumps off the balcony, and Max runs after her with a huff. They soon found the figure going to a dark alley and follow behind.

"Freeze dirtbag!"

"Huh?" The figure said as Caroline rushed and went to take out them out. The figure cowers in fear as she tries to land a punch, only for Max to pull her back.

"Hey what gives!?"

"Stand down soldier! This isn't a threat."

"What are you talking about?!"

Max tosses her to the side and takes off the figure's hood, showing a scared Sour Cream who was speaking the same way as his father Yellowtail in a panic.

"It's fine Sour Cream. You're not in any danger. Just take a deep breath."

Carly looks at Max confused, watching the boy who used to be a hothead ready to kill without hesitation, now turned into this calm reasonable man. She looks at her hand, wondering how he was fast enough to stop her and intervene.

"You okay?" Sour Cream nods softly. "Okay, can you please tell me where you got this hoodie? It has the insignia of a horrid cult know as the White Claws."

"Whoa really? I just thought it looked like a rad design. My dad found it out in the middle of the sea, washed it and gave it to me, thinking it matched my style. I thought it was cool gift and wore it around. Well I guess this is serious business. You can take this sweater, and I guess you can talk to my dad about where he found it if you need more info."

"Thanks Sour Cream, I'm sorry for the trouble."

"No problem man." They exchange a quick fist bump and Sour Cream heads off. Carly looks at Max astounded.

"What? Jealous of my people skills?" Max just smirks at her before walking off to the temple with the sweater in hand. His face morphs to a grim look as he looks at the hoodie, wondering if the White Claws are possibly in action again.


	29. Conversation

After a conversation with Yellowtail, and some translating from Vidalia, Maxwell was able to find where the hoodie was initially found. Max rented a boat and explained his plan to the gems to search the area for any hint of the White Claws. Steven seemed to be having a fun time on the boat with the others, but Max couldn't shake away the feeling of uneasiness. After some time, strange floating items were found in this foggy area of the ocean.

"...whoa guys check it out, free White Claw swag for the rest of us!" Amethyst says excitedly as she grabs one of the floating sweaters and puts it on before shapeshifting into one of the soldiers they fought. "Oh gems are a menace, humans are best, blah blah blah."

"Amethyst, as accurate as your impersonation is, you shouldn't wear one of those things so casually, what if a tracking device is on them?"

"Oh chill out Pearl, what are they gonna do? Explode or something?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they head the surrounding sweaters begin to beep slowly then rapidly.

"Son of a-!" Max was cut off as they were all blown sky high from the bombs. The boat seemed intact, but it wouldn't be long until they crash back onto the sea.

"What are we gonna do!? We're gonna crash!" Steven yelled out as everyone held onto the boat for dear life.

"We gotta abandon ship!" Max says in response.

"F that, at the rate we're falling our bodies would go splat like a cockroach on cement!"

"Carly, this isn't the time to fight, if we jump at the right time, we'll be fine. Garnet, hold onto Steven just in case."

"Already on it." She elongates her arms and hugs Steven close as everyone but Caroline prepares to jump.

"Carly! Please trust me!" Max yells out as Carly had an internal debate with herself before finally joining them. "Okay, on three! One...two…" The boat was a few feet from hitting the ocean. "Three!" With that everyone jumped off the boat just before it crashed and they dived into the water with minimal harm.

"Phew, looks like we made it. Is everyone okay?" Everyone confirms they are unharmed, Steven laughing to himself.

"Let's do it again!"

"Hehehe, sorry Steven, but we gotta get going. We need to find out who left these dangerous hoodies, and stop them. Anyone got a plan?"

"We split up." Garnet said stoically. "We'll cover more ground that way, or sea in this case. Pearl, Amethyst, Steven and Caroline are one team, Max and I will be the other."

Max knew something didn't add up, and everyone thought they same, but they knew Garnet was smart about these things and decided to take her word, not even Caroline giving her sass. "There is land nearby, we'll swim there then split up." Everyone nods and starts swimming. Once on the sandy beach, the group split into their teams and went to explore the desolate looking island.

It was, for a lack of a better term, very awkward as Max and Garnet silently strolled through the jungle, looking for any hints of the White Claw being around, yet there seemed to be almost no sign of life except for the occasional seagull or small anthill.

"...why did you tell me to hold on to Steven?"

"Huh? Well I thought you knew that I cared for the little guy."

"I understand that, but why me specifically?"

"While I know you are capable of emotions just like anyone else, during a panic inducing moment, you appear to be the most level headed. While I trust Pearl and Amethyst too, you would be able to keep calm and protect him, not to mention you have more body mass than the others."

"Excuse me?"

"...nononononononono! Not like that I-I mean your big, n-no I mean-" Before he can stammer any further, Garnet but a finger to his lips and had a small smile on her face. "Oh you were messing with me. I swear if I wasn't a nice guy and you weren't taller than me I'd bop you on the head."

Garnet just continued with her smug smile as she walked on. Small tracks were found in the sand, then leading to signs of a struggle, only for any leftover prints to be scattered or covered with leaves.

"They seem either paranoid, or know we're here."

"We cannot let them continue their path. While we prefer to stay out of human conflicts, this concerns all gems."

"...I've been meaning to ask, what happened during some of the earlier human wars? I'm sorry if this is not the time to ask, but I'd like to know...did you really stand by and watch as so many lives were lost?"

"Max...it's not so simple. Humans needed to settle their own problems and grow without interference. Who knows how the world would have changed if we interacted."

"I understand you didn't fight, I respect that you chose to let us fight our battles...but did you help the innocent? The people that weren't involved in the wars, the ones who were wrongly persecuted...I won't think any different of you depending on your answer, but I still would like to know."

"...it was awful. Many times Rose wanted to help, and so did we. We felt so weak to just stand by as human, sometimes even ones as young as Steven, be slaughtered in the midst of a war….I never knew humans could bleed so much."

"You and me both."

"It was difficult, but we forced ourselves to not interact, we stayed as far away as we could from the conflict, and only hoped humanity wouldn't fall."

"...the more depressing part of me wants to say humanity has already fallen, but it's still young. We have made many mistakes, but have grown because of it. Billions of lives have fallen and soaked the earth with their blood, but in return comes today's world. There may be many suffering, but even more given a chance to keep growing and make a difference in the world. So many given options to become stronger, wiser, faster, and just maybe help this world become something greater."

"Do you feel you are one of those people?"

"Quoting Macbeth, 'False face must hide what the false heart doth know.' What I mean is, I try to live life with a smile and positive attitude, especially around Steven, but it feels more like a mask. Inside I know I struggle to try and be something good, despite the corruption and pain consuming my heart. So many times I try to be someone good, but I know it can't remove the sins I have committed...yet, when around you all, I feel like maybe there is a chance for me. I don't have to be a bad person because of my past...with you, Pearl, Amethyst, Obsidian, and Steven, I can no longer be a fire that burns everything in its path, but a flame that brings warmth and light to those who need it."

Garnet smiles softly at him before bending to his height and planting a soft kiss on his cheek, making him blush furiously like a grade schooler with a crush.

"Sorry, you were just so cute talking Like that. I heard you talking to Caroline last night, and I'm sure we'd all be more than happy to help you get a better understanding of love."

Max's mouth was moving but no sound was coming out before he decided to just shyly hide his face behind her hands, making Garnet giggle more as she takes his hand gently. He looks at her and blushes more. He smiles softly and walks with her around the jungle.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain girl strayed from her group, and saw the whole interaction, a look of murder in her eyes. She grabs her cellular device and quietly says "It's time. Operation Zero must commence."


	30. Halloween

Author's note: This is not canon to the story. I just thought it would be fun to make.

Pearl hummed to herself as she set up some of the 'spooky' decorations around the house, including rubber bats and snakes, and plastic jack o lanterns. Amethyst was out getting the candy, and Garnet was making sure she didn't eat it all. Steven was with Connie as they went to get their costumes for trick or treating and the Halloween party later on. As for Maxwell's whereabouts...they were soon to be revealed.

Amethyst kicks open the door with a smile on her face. "Whoo! We got the goods!"

"Excellent, now we can properly give out treats to any of the children who come to our doorstep. I still say we should hand out toothbrushes, so much candy can't possibly be healthy for consumption.

"Aw Pearl, let the kids live a little, it won't kill them...at least I think it won't."

"Uh, Garnet, do you see anything in the future about Steven's health at risk."

"He doesn't die, I can assure you of that. Worst scenario, he gets a tummy ache...and he fortunately takes your advice so he doesn't get any cavities."

"Oh thank goodness, I'll make sure to get supplies ready to soothe his stomach afterwards."

"Can Steven even get a cavity? I mean, what about his healing spit and junk?"

"I don't think cavities heal the same way."

While this slightly interesting conversation continues, it is to be their demise as the lights are switched off.

"Is this another power outage?" Pearl asks inquisitively.

"Aw man, and I wanted to get my groove on for the night, YOW!" Pearl and Garnet look to see where Amethyst was, finding nothing.

"D-did Amethyst just vanish?"

"Something isn't right stay on guard." Just as she says this, a rope is wrapped around her and drags her into the darkness.

"Garnet!" She pulls out her spear and stands tall, ready to defend herself. "I-I'm not afraid, show yourself!" After her shout of courage, it was quickly silenced as a swarm of bats with fangs bared fly out of the darkness. She shielded herself as the bats flew past her. She opens her eyes to see two small sharp objects fly at her and pin her clothing to the wall. She looks to see a mysterious figure slowly walk out. "W-what are you!?"

The figure pounces at her and lifts her up by her collar. "I am the thing that people fear in the dark, I am the enemy to all things evil. I AM VENGEANCE...I AM THE NIGHT...I AM BATMAN!"

Pearl was completely stunned into silence the figure before her slowly lets her go and then turns on the lights. He removes his cowl, to reveal Maxwell with a smirk. "How do you like my costume?"

"Max?! W-where are Garnet and Amethyst?"

"Up here!" Pearl looks up to see Garnet and Amethyst were hanging from the ceiling.

"Sorry about that, it was to set the mood." Max goes and ties them and helps them down.

"That was pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie, but why bats?"

"You guys don't know the story of Batman?" They all shake their heads, making Max sigh and tell the tragic tale of the hero.

"Using his own fear against his enemies. Interesting."

"And he uses his money to get all these cool gadgets and gizmos?"

"And he uses a mixture of detective skills and combat to take down insane criminals?"

"Yep. He was always a favorite of mine, and with Halloween here I thought it would be fun to have a fully decked out costume as a tribute to the Dark Knight. Including hand made batarangs and grappling hook."

"Where did you get all those bats though?"

"Oh that part was tricky, I had to shapeshift my obsidian arm into multiple bats, and make them fly. It wasn't easy, but definitely worth it. But I do apologize for scaring all of you."

"I-I wasn't scared, just...startled."

"Hehehe. Oh, I see we have other super heroes coming over." Max goes to the door excitedly, while the others seemed confused. He opens the door and opens up his cloak, and yells out, trying to scare them.

"Hi Max, your costume looks awesome." Steven and Connie walk in, unfazed by Max trying to scare them. Steven had cool Superman costume, and Connie as Wonder Woman.

"Whoa, what are you little dudes going as?"

"Well Max suggested that we go as these superheroes because of how they were kinda similar to us."

"Yep, and this way we can go out as the Justice League!"

"Justice League?"

"Oh jeez, if I try to explain all of this, we'll never be able to get our trick or treat groove on. We can talk about it tomorrow, time to get some candy!"

"Aren't you a little old for trick or treating?" Pearl said with a smug smile.

"Aren't you, Garnet and Amethyst little old to stay so beautiful? Age doesn't matter when we're practically immortal. Besides this is my first Halloween ever." Pearl blushes from the out of nowhere compliment, but Steven looks at Max confused.

"Your first?"

"Yeah, remember my childhood?"

"Oh yeah your hometown."

"Yep, so I intend to enjoy myself tonight and get some candy. WOOHOO!" It was odd seeing a young man in a batman costume so excited, but no one decided to ruin his fun. Steven and Connie followed him with glee as they hit up almost every house in Beach City.

"I got a chocolate bar!"

"I got licorice!"

"I gotta rock...rock candy that is!"

Laughter and cheer is heard throughout the city, everyone having fun giving scares, eating sweets, and just showing off their fun costumes. As soon as their bags of candy were getting heavy, they decided to head to the party. It was quite the shindig, many spooky yet catchy beats were blasting through the speakers, infecting people with the urge to dance until their legs give out.

"This is awesome! Come on Max, let's go dance."

"You two go ahead, I'm gonna make sure we put our candy somewhere safe."

Steven and Connie nod as they hit up the dance floor with their stellar dance moves. Max smiles as he goes and puts the bags of candy next to the doorway, and puts one of his special sensor bombs as a barrier. If anyone tried to steal the candy, they'll get covered with green goo. With that all set up, he watched as Steven and Connie danced happily on the dance floor. The whole spirit of Halloween was in the air and Max felt things could only get better from here on out. The he heard a loud slam as someone busted through the front doors. Everyone was too preoccupied with the party to notice, at least until the strange figure kept bumping into others

The figure seemed to be dressed up like a seaweed monster, their costume covering them head to toe and unrecognizable. With the current holiday, everyone shrugged it as something normal, but the pit in Max's stomach grew with uneasiness as he watched the figure. The strange being went to the food table and stared at the glorious feast of snack foods and candies. Then in one swift movement, they went on a ravenous rampage, eating everything on the table as if they were a starving vagabond.

"Hey! Knock it off, that food is for everybody." Max yells out as he goes to stop the being, only for them to growl at him and a tendril of seaweed to grab him and fling him into the wall. The music stops and everyone watches as the being reveals its true self. Under the seaweed was a sickly and decomposed looking body. It was human in figure but on its stomach was a murky green gemstone.

"It's a corrupted gem. Steven! Connie! Evacuate everyone, I'll distract it." Steven and Connie nod as they help everyone out of the building. The monster gives a bone chilling wail as it shuffles toward Maxwell.

"Good thing I never leave home without a weapon." He says as he pulls out his custom batarangs and throws them at the beast, the sharp projectiles getting embedded into their body, then screaming horrifically as it runs at him. Max grabs at his utility belt and throws a few smoke bombs. The creature uses its seaweed to swipe at the smoke, only for no one to be there. The corrupted gem looks around slowly for Maxwell, not knowing he was hanging from one of the ceiling beams. He raises his cowl and dive bombs at the gem. They look around too late and see only dark bat-like outline in the light as Max gives a powerful dive kick to the gem, launching them into the wall and leaving a huge crack in it. The corrupted being curls up in fear as it looks at Max who stands intimidatingly in the light.

Without saying a word, Max walks over to the gem. It thrashes with its seaweed tendrils, only for Max to burn them with ease. Once in front of the frightened gem, he looks down on them with a powerful glare. "I don't know what torture is going on in your mind...but understand this...we will help you. One day the corruption will be purged and you will be free again." With that said, Maxwell reels back and punches as hard as he can, effectively poofing them back into their gem. Max sighs softly before bubbling the gem and sending it with the others.

Everyone pools in and sees the wreckage, and the lone warrior standing there. "Defeated is the monster, you may continue with your festivities."

"Wait, before you go, who are you?" Steven asks to help set up the cool mood.

"My name is of no importance, but if you must know. I...am Batman." He uses his grappling hook and disappears from view.

"...you do realize we all know he's Max right?" Connie says with a smirk.

"Yeah, but I could tell he really wanted to do that." Steven says with a chuckle.

Max is seen on the top of the temple and jumps off to glide into the night sky, the outline of a bat in the full moon.

 **Author's note: Now in the spirit of the holiday, here is a ghost story I wrote once for school, that I think ties into Max's character.**

The creaking...I can hear every sound this house makes. From the tree branches hitting the window, to the ominous howls of the wind. For so many nights I have been unable to sleep. It is to the point where my bloodshot eyes only stare at the door...my door. I don't know whether I love or hate that door. It hasn't done anything bad to me, but it is such a pushover. *Creeeeeeeak* Oh there it goes again, the door shamelessly opening wide...revealing the halls the kept me up for so long. The only time when everything else goes quiet, except for the god awful creaking once again. At first all that is in the hallway is nothing but air…*Creak* then I see a foot, whiter than the soulless eyes of the dead … *Creak* and now she has appeared.

Every night, for the past week, a little girl walking down my hallway at a slow pace, almost as if she were forcing her body to move, even though her body was dead. Her body and clothes were so eerily white, it hurts my eyes. She would look at me with those blank vacant eyes. I remember what I said the first time I saw her, I yelled "Hello? Who are you? I hope you understand you are in my house." She would say nothing, but raise her bony finger to her lips, almost as if she were shushing me, and then continues walking. Ever since then, I was unable to sleep. Nothing I do works. I tried every method, from warm milk to sleeping pills, but my eyes stay open as I watch her walk down the halls again.

This has gone too long, my body and mind are exhausted, near the breaking point. I wanted to sleep, I NEED TO SLEEP! It was too much, on that last night, I sprung from my bed and rushed at her, intent on ripping her head off. Yet once I walked into the hallway, she was gone. I screamed. I felt mad, insane beyond comprehension. I didn't know what was wrong with me...then I hear a giggle. I couldn't see her, but I know she was there. She was taunting me, MOCKING ME! Then more voices joined, laughing at my misery. I clutched my head and tried to muffle the noises, but they only grew louder at my sad attempts. They continued to laugh and Laugh, And LAUGH! IT WAS SO FUNNY! I soon began laughing myself! Laughing louder than all of them, a laugh of pure horrid madness going through my house, silencing the other voices...I remember it all now.

It all made sense...I knew those condescending voices, the little girl...I remember their screams and the looks of terror on their faces as I slit their throats. I laughed even louder if it was possible, it was so much fun remembering it. The people who tormented me, they were supposed to be family but all they did was keep me down. So much pain...the pain made me into what I am. I still can feel the warm blood as it flowed onto my hands. The screams of pain when I set their homes aflame while they were trapped inside. I was the only one laughing now, the girl was silent, trembling in fear as my voice echoed through her soul. Soon, all I had was a smile on my face as I walked back towards my bed. I tucked myself in, finally at peace. I saw the girl in the hallway, tears in her eyes. I just smiled and snapped my fingers. She screams in horror as a fire spread across her, showing her ghastly corpse as I last saw it. The door shut closed and my eyes finally rested. I slept peacefully as I remembered….I won...I was no prisoner, I am in control of my life now. The house was silent, except for the musical echo of my laugh.

 **Happy Halloween**


	31. Betrayal

After the talk with the living conversation, Max and Garnet meet up with the others to talk about their findings. Unfortunately it seems all leads to the hideout are covered.

"How do they know we're here? We don't even know if we're in the right place!" Pearl said in confusion.

"It's as if they are watching us from afar. Shot in the dark, maybe they have trained birds watching us?" Max guessed.

"But we haven't seen any birds, gem monsters, or humans. It's almost as if everything is avoiding us." Amethyst points out. While those three continue to talk, Garnet looks to see Steven deep in thought while looking at the forest.

"Any thoughts on our predicament Steven?"

"Well...I remember when Max and I first found their base, it was completely invisible. So if they can make a building invisible...could they be invisible too?"

Everyone's eyes widened at that and they drew their weapons.

"How could we not see it...we weren't hunting for them, the White Claws were playing us." Just as Max said that, a small ball rolled between them. Everything after that was a blur as everyone was taken out, the flash bang doing its job.

Max slowly wakes up, his head hurting. He goes to rub it, but finds he is bound and strapped to a table. He struggles in vain, attempting to turn to smoke to escape but a powerful shock goes through his obsidian arm if he tries. "What's going on!? Show yourselves you cowards!" He yells challengingly.

The lights flicker on to reveal a skinny, sickly looking old man, a cane in hand and bald wrinkly face. Yet despite his sickly appearance, his seemed more than happy to be in front of him. "So you're finally awake, Mr. Ignitus."

"Am I right to presume you're the new leader of the White Claws?"

"In a way you can say I've always been the leader. The fool you beaten was more of an icon to the people, but I was the one with the real brains."

"So you're the one who conducted the awful experiments, created those invisibility contraptions."

"And don't forget finding the key to immortality." Just as he says that, a soldier comes over and bring a strange looking pill, almost familiar even. Before he can really examine it though, the old man grab the pill and swallows it, his body already looking healthier and stronger.

"Impossible."

"Oh really? Your gem friends seem to have immortality already. Never really aging, just staying young as they continue their fruitless quests to protect the world."

"Shut up! They have done a better job protecting the Earth than you or your awful gang."

"I'm not gonna waste my breath trying to convince you to join, you've been a thorn in our operations for too long." As he says that, he points to a soldier, who nods and pulls a lever, sending a powerful continuous shock to Max, making him scream from the pain.

"Wait!" From the darkness Caroline runs out. "Shut it off now Arthur!"

"Oh what is it now?" The old man, presumably named Arthur waves his hand and the shocking stops, leaving Max panting heavily.

"You said if I brought him here, you wouldn't kill him. That was our deal!"

"C-Caroline? What are you talking about?" Max asked weakly.

"So you haven't told him yet." Arthur chuckles darkly as Caroline attempted to explain.

"I-I didn't think this would happen. You said you would take the gems, and let me and Max go."

"Carly…"

"...I am a part of the White Claws. When you left, I thought to myself, 'What do I plan to do for my future?' I only thought of us together. Then I was assigned on a mission with other soldiers to stop a terrorist group, who I now know were White Claw members. We were strong enough, my whole crew was slaughtered except for me. They saw potential in me. I was subjected to so many experiments, made stronger, faster, immortal. Once I showed loyalty they told me all about the gems. I was so determined to fight them...but then I learned you were with them. How you killed the king by fusing with Steven. They wanted you dead but I convinced them if we just kill Steven and he gems then you won't fight us anymore. We can run away together and start over!"

She looked at Max, but only saw contempt in his eyes. Arthur put a hand on her shoulder and chuckled. "Don't you see? He is too corrupted by the gems, he would rather die than side with humans."

"Oh please, all the drugs in your system, the modifications you have done… none of you are human anymore." Max spat out at them, struggling against the bonds. Caroline's eyes were full of sorrow, unsure of what to do.

Arthur just pushed Caroline out of the way and smirked. "You're right, we are not human...we are gods." With that he gave a signal and some of the soldiers push certain buttons. Out of the ceiling comes a sharp looking guillotine. Max trikes to struggle out but his attempts were futile. The guillotine aligns itself at the midpoint of his arm, where the obsidian and flesh intersected. With one last push of the button by Arthur himself.

Time seemed to slow down, yet was fast all the same. Max's world seemed destroyed, the gems were probably locked up and being forced to suffer, Caroline betrayed them, and now… all he can do is scream as Obsidian was cut lean off of him. He looked at the fresh blood gushing out of his dismembered arm once again. One of the soldiers go to pick up the arm, but before Max could see what happens, he passes out.

"...Ugh." Steven rubs his head as he gets up, only to find himself in a cell. "Hmm...Garnet? Amethyst? Pearl?...Max?" He calls out for anyone, only for a soldier to come and tell him to stay quiet.

"Where is my family!?"

"Kid, stay quiet. We haven't done anything...yet. Can't say the same for the punk with a black arm."

"What did you do to him!? Please don't hurt him!"

"Hehe, sorry kid, but I gotta follow orders. I got a family to feed."

"How would your family feel if they knew you were doing this, experimenting and hurting other living beings for your own gain?"

"...I sometimes ask that question myself...but in the end, what matters is that my family is healthy and safe, even if it means having to kill others."

"But you don't have to kill anyone, there is a better way to live! We can help! We can-"

"Shut it...we don't have any other choice. The White Claws are what I was raised on. Gems are the enemies, we are the superior race to lead humanity...it's all that matters."

"The gems were raised to think they were better than all races, but look at them now! Look at me! My main gave up her whole being just so I can be born. I may not be a human or a gem, I'm not sure what I am, but I know one thing. I am a Steven Universe, and my goal is to help the Crystal Gems protect Earth, help them learn more about humans, and give everyone a happy ending. It might seem childish to you but it's what I believe in. Life is hard and it won't get easy, but with friends and family by your side, you can face it together and do great things. The White Claws don't have to fight the gems, we can be friends and work together to make Earth even better, then maybe go out for pizzas."

"Pizza?"

"Yeah, thinking of the best case scenario."

"...but my family-"

"Your family loves you don't they? And you love them. Instead of living in this conflict, take them somewhere better, become a part of this world and really help. You don't have to be an iron fist, but a helping hand."

"..."

Before Steven can try to persuade him anymore, a siren can be heard. The soldier arms himself and goes to check on the problem, while Steven waits in his cell, feeling worry in his gut...something dangerous was near.

Pearl wakes up and looks around to see Garnet and Amethyst were strapped to tables next to her. Speaking of which, she was strapped in too. Amethyst clearly struggled to shapeshift to get out, but seemed unable to. The same can be said for Garnet, whose strength seemed almost nullified. A door can be heard opening and a few humans in white coats come in, along with a cart of many offputting tools.

"Hey! Let me out of here so I can kick your butts!" Amethyst cries out as she continued to struggle.

"Silence gem, you may want to save your voice for screaming as we carve out your gem." At that, all the gems were horrified.

Pearl put on a calm face despite her fear and looked at them head on. "Why are you doing this? Why are gems your enemies? Rose Quartz fought your leader fairly, and before that we have never harmed a single human."

"It's more than that. Maybe our clan at first was rash, but the fact is, you claim to be protectors of Earth, when in reality, your race had only the intention of harvesting our planet." The scientists state calmly as they prepare the tool and put on their gloves.

"That was the Diamonds. The Crystal gems rebelled in hopes of preserving earth and all life on it, wanting to let it thrive even if it meant having to fight our own kind." Garnet tried to explain.

"Maybe, but in the end you still looked down on us. You all thought you were some superior beings compared to us, that humans were just mindless animals. Almost like how we see puppies at a store."

"We're changing from that though...recently Rose Quartz fell in love with a human, it was something spectacular, even if I was envious of a human being with Rose. She gave up her physical form just so She can have a human child with the one she loved. That was Steven, the first ever human and gem hybrid. In the many years he's been with us, he has showed us that humans are so much more. He taught us how they are capable of growing strong and maybe even wiser than us in different ways. Then there was Max, a human who has seen the ugly side of humanity, the pain it is capable of inflicting. He showed us that humans and gems aren't so different. We both fight with our own kind, have these horrible turmoils of emotion, and make many bad decisions, but in the end try to do what's good even if it costs our lives or sanity. Maybe working together, we can be equals instead of trying to be better than the other."

The scientist only looked at Pearl, her speech making them think twice about their actions. Garnet and Amethyst look at Pearl proudly until a siren is heard.

"Sir! We are getting reports of...something attacking the base from the inside."

"But that's impossible, all the gems are captive."

"I don't know what it is but we need to give medical attention because Doctor Arthur is heavily wounded."

"Alright, we can work on the gems later, we have a new mission. Everyone head out." The scientists nod before running out to survey the problem.

As Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven listen to the sounds of gunfire and destruction, a certain smell wafts through the air and makes them cough. Steven's cell bars seem to dissolve into small puddles of magma, and the gems restraints are incinerated. Not questioning their freedom, they all run out and soon meet up with each other.

"Steven!" The gems all cried out happily as they hug him close.

"Guys! Are you all okay? Where's Max?"

"Huh? We thought he was with you."

Their reunion was cut short as a huge explosion rocks the base. The look down a large hallway and see multiple soldiers trying to gun down something out of view, only for large smoky tendrils to smack them out of the way and incapacitate them. They gems summon their weapons as they go to follow the smoky being. Soon they come across a large room that looked like a battlefield now. Multiple White Claw soldiers are shooting at the target while some others are escorting Arthur out the the danger. The gems are shocked as they finally see the source of destruction. A giant being made of fiery smoke, lava, and obsidian that looked like forced combination of hundred of monsters, constantly shifting into many ferocious beasts or nightmarish figure. At the center though seemed to be a black transparent womanly figure with white eyes and long hair holding onto an incapacitated Maxwell, although without his obsidian arm.

"Wait...is that?"

"Yes Steven, it's Obsidian herself. Somehow they were separated, allowing her corrupted form to take shape and attack." Garnet said informatively?"

"How do we stop it? She doesn't look like she's gonna listen to reason." Amethyst pointed out.

"Maybe if we can just get her somewhere safe, she'll stop and see nothing is attacking her or Max."

"So we have our mission. Gems, get the White Claw members out of here so Obsidian will feel safe." They nod as they dodge and evade any gunfire or wild attacks from Obsidian. Many of the White Claw were reluctant to do what the gems say, but thought it was better than being smashed to pieces by the corrupted gem. Soon all of the human were helped into the other room, leaving Obsidian to just rampage alone.

"I don't get it, no one is shooting at her, why is she still so mad?"

"Oh ho ho." A that laugh, Arthur taps his cane, revealing a button on it. He presses it and aims the cane at the gems, sending out an energy beam that binds the four. "Idiots, she wanted me dead, not just for the soldiers to cease fire."

"What? Why?"

"Oh she's just angry because I 'disarmed' the boy. I was hoping to just take the obsidian and grind it up like the other gems, but she seemed to not take a liking to that. Oh well, we'll just have to escape and blow up the base with you all in it!"

"You narrow minded stupid old fart!"

"We have heard the reasons from the other humans, why are you so concerned with killing gems?"

"Why you ask? Because I know the human race is wea. The White Claw are to be the rulers of the world. We will dominate all of Earth and have it under our control. And we won't stop with Earth, but the entire universe!" He cackles madly into the air, thinking his victory was assured.

*bang*

Arthur's body drops, Caroline with a gun in her hand.

"...The Earth isn't to be controlled…" She looks to the others and sighs. "Go to your families and homes, no longer are we White Claws...we are humans, trying to make the world better, but have done horrible things. We need to stop with these dumb ideals of superiority, and instead try to make ourselves and humanity better...and the gems are here to help." She looks to the gems and nods softly before leading everyone out."Tell Max… 'I hope to someday be a better friend.'" She runs out with the others and the gems look to each other before walking into the room.

Obsidian seemed calmer, but still angry and untrusting. The team nodded as they approached her slowly, Steven taking out his guitar to bring a familiar tune.

If you're evil and you're an the rise

You can count on the four of us taking you down

Cause we're good and evil never beats us

We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas

We are the Crystal Gems

We'll always save the day

And if you think we can't

We'll always find a way

That's why the people of this world believe in

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, and Steven!

And now Max and Obsidian.

As Steven ends his song Obsidian seems to be lulled into a calmer state, soon reverting back into her gem, but not before fusing with Max's arm yet again and becoming whole.

Garnet carries the still sleeping human as the group heads back to Beach City for some well deserved rest.

 **Author's note: Hello, sorry for not updating lately, holiday season has made things a bit difficult to write, not to mention the differing weather here in California is driving me crazy. It's below 60 in the morning, then suddenly in the 90s. Hopefully with the Christmas season I'll be able to continue. Until then, I hope you all enjoy.**


	32. Tis the Season

***Warning, this scene contains religious connection. It is not necessary to read so you may skip it if you worry about getting offended, but it gives a small bit of insight to Maxwell.***

Max walks through the large entrance and looks inside. Many decorations of the holiday spirit surround the ins and out of the church. Some individuals, pairs, and groups of people, sitting in the large rows of seats as they pray. Max walks over to look at a familiar scene. The birth of the Son of God, which paved the road to many religious ideals. During Max's years of loneliness, he prayed to these holy figures in hopes that faith in another could give him strength. For around a decade or so it worked, but with time he grew apart from it, finding himself questioning not just his faith, but questioning why so many religions existed, why science deemed the world to have started with a bang, why people look to blame or praise a being or multiple beings for their failures and success.

"No, now is not the time. I didn't come to question...just to give my respects." He looks to see the different interpretations of the man in question. A baby of a virgin, a man who turned water to wine, a supposed criminal nailed to the cross. He closes his eyes and speaks quietly.

"I know I haven't spoken to you for quite some time, I do not regret leaving, but I do regret not explaining why...but you probably already know. I wonder if aliens were a part of your father's design, hehehe… Christmas is coming soon, so I just wanted to say 'Happy Birthday'... Please help the people who follow and believe in you, give them something to hold onto to as they walk down the harsh path of life, the same goes for the people who believe differently. I want to believe that those who do well stay on the path toward an eternity of happiness, and not on the path toward eternal pain and despair… goodbye and, good luck on the future."

He opens his eyes and sighs softly before leaving the church.

 ***End of religious scene, apologies if this was offensive, but I warned you. And don't worry I won't make this canon. It's just like the Halloween one, just for fun.***

With this done he walks back toward Beach City, intent on enjoying the season with his friends.

He can already see the holiday spirit as he took a step into the lively town. Funland with winter themed rides, decorations of red, green, and white adorning homes and buildings, all that was missing was-

"HEADS UP!"

Max looked toward the source of the voice only to get a face full of snow. It was always weird to him, that at some beaches snow can fall just like in any other place. Max wipes the snow off his face to see Amethyst on her back and laughing hard.

"Real funny, how about this?" Max packs his own snowball and throws it above Amethyst.

"Pfft, you missed."

"Wasn't aiming for you."

Amethyst was confused until she looked up to see his snowball hit a tree branch covered in snow, making the cold powder collapse on top of the gem.

"Don't mess with the best." Max yells out, only to run as fast as he can a second later as Amethyst used the snow on top of her to make a giant snowball and run after Max to throw it at him.

"What is so fun about throwing condensed ice crystals?" Peridot asks inquisitively inside the warm safety of the house with Garnet, Pearl, Lapis, and Steven.

"I never really understood it until I retaliated against Amethyst, it's like a mock battle that can't really harm anyone." Pearl explained as she gets a box of decorations ready, and Garnet sets down the big pine tree.

"Plus it's a nice way to distract Amethyst so she doesn't eat all of the cookie dough." Garnet said with her hands on her hips.

"OH you're right, I better quadruple check to see if it's still safe." Pearl quickly runs off to check, Peridot still watching with fascination as Max and Amethyst have snow war.

"Did you want to join Peridot?" Steven asks as he sits next to her, wearing the customary ugly sweater with a certain red nosed reindeer.

"Um…" She looks out again to see Max running in terror as Amethyst somehow made a cannon shooting huge snowballs at him. "No, I'd rather not be pelted with ice."

"It's not really ice, it's actually really fresh so it's soft. It only hurts if you throw it really hard. I can show you and Lapis how to have a snowball fight, for fun!"

"Hmm...what do you say Lapis?" She looks to see Lapis adorning a headband that has fake reindeer antlers.

"...why not, if Steven says it's safe, I'll take his word for it."

"Great! Let's just go somewhere so we're not caught in...that." He points outside to Amethyst now running away as Max now has a snowball minigun and laughing maniacally.

Steven leads the two gems out into a clearing with tons of fresh snow.

"Okay, before we do a snowball fight, let's understand snow, and this is the best way possible." He falls onto his back and moves his arms and legs up and down in the snow.

"What are you doing?"

"It's called making a snow angel, this way you can feel the snow, and make something nice." He gets up and shows how his movements created an imprint similar to an angel.

"Interesting." Peridot looks at the snow questioningly before letting herself fall onto her face, and doing the actions similar to Steven.

"Uh, you usually do it on your back but this is okay too." Peridot comes back up and the trio look to see the bottom half is right, but the head is shaped like a triangle and has a small indention that looks like her face.

"Haha! I have found the secrets of this snow!" She does a small victory dance as Lapis goes to do her own angel, but doesn't move as she lays down.

"Are you okay Lapis?"

"Steven, is this snow...water?"

"Sort of, it's like rain but the coldness make it freeze a little so it's not ice, but halfway there."

"Hmm." Lapis reenacts the actions Steven and Peridot did, but once she got up, she focused on the snow and made the snow angel literally fly.

"WOW! You can control snow too?" Steven looks to Lapis but sees a strained look on her face before she drops the angel.

"Sorry Steven, it's different from water so it's kinda hard to control."

"That's okay, that was so cool!"

"I will admit Lapis, while it doesn't have the artistic touch like mine, your flying snow was extremely impressive."

"Okay, not that we have a better understanding of snow, now it's time for a snowball fight. But this doesn't have to be so intense, we can take it slow and have fun."

"Of course Steven. Lazuli, think fast!" Peridot grabs a clump of snow and tries to throw it at Lapis, only for the snow to gently scatter onto the ground.

"I think you need more practice." Lapis said with a small smirk.

"Peridot you can't just throw the snow, you gotta make it into ball." Steven demonstrates as he gets some of the snow and packs it together into a ball.

"Oh it makes sense, the ball form makes it able to withstand being thrown, you can aim it more accurately, and it would give a stronger impact."

"Yeah like this." Lapis scoops up some snow, makes it into a ball and drops it onto Peridot's head.

Peridot gasps dramatically. "How could you Lapis? I thought we were friends!" She giggles a little, signifying that she's joking.

"There are no friends in a snowball fight." Lapis said, quoting Percy in Camp Pining Hearts when the camp members were having a pie fight. Peridot laughs happily before gently pushing Lapis and running off behind a tree for cover. The three began to have quite the snowball fight, having fun as they battle it out with the white powder. After so much jolly fun, they head back to the temple, Steven enjoying a nice cup of cocoa Garnet made in advance, so it wasn't too hot, just perfectly warm.

"Amethyst! Get away from there!"

"I love cookie dough as much as the next person, but you can't eat it yet!" From the sound of it Max and Amethyst were back inside, but the war continues as Pearl and Max team up to try and keep her away from the cookie dough.

"Come on! I'm hungry!"

"You don't need to eat!"

Max takes some star shaped cookie cutters, using them as throwing stars as he threw them at Amethyst, only for her for jump out of the way and body slam him.

"Gah! Get your big butt off me!"

"Funny, most people like it when I'm on top of them."

"No innuendos!" Max yells with a blush.

Pearl huffs as she quickly puts Amethyst in a bubble.

"Oh come on!"

"You try to eat the cookies, you get put in the bubble of shame."

"Since when was it called the bubble of shame?"

"Since now." Pearl smirks as she brings a bubbled Amethyst back to the main room.

"Well, now with that fiasco over, how is everyone enjoying winter so far?" He looks around the room, Steven, Peridot, and Lapis exhausted but smiling, Pearl slightly frazzled after the earlier battle of the cookies but overall happy, Amethyst a little pouty but everyone knew she was having fun, as for Garnet...she was under a mistletoe for herself, and gives a thumbs up.

"From what I'm seeing now, I don't think things could get any better."

Just as he says that, Greg and Connie burst in, Greg dressed like a certain jolly man in red, and Connie wearing her own ugly sweater with snowflake patterns on it.

"Ho ho ho!"

"Dad! I mean, Santa, Connie!" Steven goes to give them both his patented, Steven hug.

"And things got better."

"Hey there Stewball, I thought I'd come and give my favorite son the ol Season's Greetings, and ran into Connie along the way."

"Happy Holidays Steven!" Connie said with a smile. With the humans now joining the warm get together, Pearl decided now was about time to get the cookies ready. Amethyst was visibly drooling as she saw Pearl get the goodies ready, Max keeping a close eye.

Garnet smirks as she starts setting her own little plan in action. Getting the mistletoe with ease, she hangs it above Steven and whoever he was next to, letting the little cutie pie give loving pecks on the cheek to Connie, Peridot, Lapis, Pearl, Amethyst(who was allowed to get out of the bubble as long as Max kept watch), and herself. To say all the reactions were adorable was an understatement, and Max got it all on video.

"Smile for the camera everyone, hehehe." Max said in a teasing voice, only for Garnet to put the mistletoe over him and give him a swift kiss, making him blush until his face looked redder than a ruby, with Peridot getting vengeance as she used her power over metal and tech to make the camcorder record his expression.

Once everyone had their fun teasing each other, Pearl came with a tray of freshly baked, star shaped cookies.

"Now now, don't crowd. I did some math and there are 16 cookies, I thought it would be fair if everyone got two cookies each. I personally won't eat any so that leaves just enough for everyone else." She happily handed out the war treats to everyone to enjoy. Amethyst was a little disappointed with only two cookies, but Max decided to give her one of his as an apology for watching over her like a prison guard.

As it began to get darker outside, everyone began to huddle together and sing carols together, the atmosphere filled with joy and warmth. Connie soon left to go and join her family for their own night of merriment. Greg accidentally fell asleep after one too many bottles of eggnog. Soon Steven was getting sleepy too, the group happily tucking him in bed so he can rest. As time went on everyone went to their separate rooms, soon with just Max looking out the window as snow gently drifted down. He lied down to rest his mind, feeling genuinely happy for having such a wondrous day with his new family. He knew life would throw new things at him, to make him struggle, but it was times like these that made it all worth it. With heavy eyelids closing shut, he fell asleep.

 **Author's Note: I want to apologize again for my lack of content. This started out as something to do for fun, but I just feel my ideas dwindling for it. I'm not saying this is the end, but it may be some time before I continue it. I hope you all managed to enjoy my story, and have a wonderful time. If you wanna see something new I've been working on, it's called Burning Will, an original story of mine on the website FictionPress. Maybe you'll enjoy it, maybe you won't, just thought I'd tell you all. Thanks again, and see you all later.**


	33. Portraits

The White Claws defeated, the Crystal Gems reunited, and Max and Obsidian back together as one. Time for a well deserved break. Once Maxwell was back on his feet, he and the gems decided to keep things at a calmer pace, thinking they had enough fighting and explosions for the month. Of course that didn't exclude going on rides in Funland.

"I said I'm not a fan of rollercoasters!" Max protested as he was carried by Amethyst and put into a seat, Steven excitedly getting in the seat behind him.

"Dude relax, if you can handle life threatening danger, I'm sure you can handle a little roller coaster." Amethyst said as she sat next to him and strapped him into the seat, no matter how he protested.

"Do you know how many people have died on roller coasters?!"

"No, but even if we do, we can just reform."

"That's besides the point! I'm telling you that- oh no we're moving."

Mr. Smiley turns a lever and the roller coaster begins to move, slowly climbing up the intimidating or fun ramp, depending on your personal perspective.

"The best part is when you have your hands in the air." Steven said joyfully as he raises his arms.

"See? If Steven can handle it, you can too."

"That boy has gone through emotional trauma far worse than 90% of the people on this planet and keeps smiling, that's different from me!"

"Didn't you go through some tough stuff too?"

"Entirely different! Wait why have we stopped?" He stops his arguing and looks forward, seeing nothing but the sky and a passing seagull. He looks down to see the impending drop. Max hasn't done this in years but he uses his fingers to draw a cross on his chest before they all drop.

"AAAAAHH!" Max screams out in terror as they ride truly begins, going down at high speeds, going through loops, and many other ramps. Behind him were Steven and others screaming with joy as they seem to go through a tunnel. Several flashes of light occur in the cave as the roller coaster finally comes to an end.

"Dude, I know I'm irresistible but…" Amethyst smirks as Max was clinging onto her with a terrified expression. He blushes slightly and removes his hands from her body, unbuckling himself as he gets out of the ride on shaky legs.

"That was so much fun!" Steven yells out as he gets off the ride and runs excitedly, the adrenaline still pumping within him.

"See, it wasn't so bad." Amethyst pats Max's shoulder, only for him to fall face first onto the ground. "Okay now you're just being a drama queen."

"I'll have you know, there is nothing wrong with being a little expressive."

"Oh yeah, just like your photo." She points over her shoulder to the screen showing the pictures that were taken in the cave to show everyone's expressions, including Max's terror filled face.

"Can I get that with a frame?" Steven asks, thinking it was funny.

"Bluh!" Max yells out, flailing his arms. He decides to go and find something less likely to give him a heart attack, looking over to see a skinny man doing portraits for people. His current customer appeared to be Nanefua Pizza, sitting still as the man works. Once he finishes, he proudly shows the portrait to her, only for her to frown.

"What kind of portrait is this? It looks nothing like me!" She shows off the portrait, which seemed far too wrong. Her wrinkles were incredibly droopy, she had big teeth, and her eyes were crossed, all around looking pretty messy.

"Enough! If this dumb town cannot appreciate true art, then I will take my talents and leave!" He huffs and walks off haughtily.

"Where was your talent in the first place?" Nanefua said angrily before walking away.

"Well, he wasn't too good of an artist anyways, but now I got no one to draw face portraits." Mr. Smiley said, seeming to struggle with keeping his grin. Steven overheard this and rushed over, almost tripping over but smiling up at him.

"I know! I can do the face portraits, or at least find someone to do it."

"Well, it's not like I got any other choice. Okay Steven, if you can find someone by tomorrow to do good face portraits, they got the job.

"You can count on me!" Steven salutes before beginning to run home. Max only chuckles and follows along with Steven, interested to see where he was going with this.

Once back at the temple, Max looks to see Steven putting up a chair, getting some crayons and paper, and beginning to try and draw the currently sleeping Lion's face.

"Uh Steven, I'm pretty sure you gotta do human faces."

"True, but if I can do a lion's face, then a human one should be easy right?"

"I don't know how you came across that logic, but let's see what you got."

Steven shows his finished work of Lion. It looked relatively good, definitely better than the artist back at Funland, but it still seemed slightly messy and probably wouldn't be considered a proper portrait.

"I mean, it's better than that stuck up guy, and way better than what I could do." Max said truthfully.

"You know, I've never seen you draw, maybe you can show me what you can do!"

"No no no, I'm not good at drawing, let alone portraits. I can't even draw a stick figure correctly." He shudders as he remembered his early drawings when he younger.

"Oh come on, pleeeeease?" Steven asks with puppy dog eyes.

"Ugh, you're too good at that. Fine, hand me some paper and a pencil, I'll try to do your face."

"Woohoo!" Steven gives Max the needed supplies before sitting across him with a smile. Max felt his right hand twitch lightly, the obsidian fingers taking the pencil and gliding along the paper effortlessly. Max felt a small connection with the gem again, his eyes looking over every detail of Steven's face and hair, then the hand jotting down every last feature. In just a couple of minutes he finishes.

"Well? Come on let me see!" Steven says excitedly. Max looks at the paper stunned before lifting it up, the looking almost exactly like Steven's smiling face, just black and white from using only a pencil. "Wow! It's like looking in a mirror. How did you do that?"

"I-I didn't at least not by myself. It was like Obsidian was copying everything my eyes were seeing and my brain remembered." Max looks at his hand in surprise before taking a new paper and beginning to draw. "Hey can you get the gems? I wanna show this to them!"

"You got it!" He hurries over to get the others with the portrait in hand. A few minutes later he comes back with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, seeing a slightly tired Maxwell resting his hand.

"Great you're all here! Check this out!" He gets his newest pieces of work and reveals them fully to the gems. "I just thought since I found out I had this ability, I might as well give you all a gift considering all the trouble we've been through." The pictures were revealed to be full body drawings of each of the gems. First was one of Pearl in a meadow with her lance in hand as she looks up at a pinkish sky, with petals billowing in the wind. Second was one of Garnet, her hands together making a heart, a sweet smile on her face, and a mixture of blue and red colors dancing around her, colliding into a color matching her gem. Last but not least was Amethyst sitting on the boardwalk during a beautiful sunny day with ice cream in hand and winking at the viewer.

 **Author's note: Understand that I made these images off the top of my head, I apologize if this was something an artist actually made or seems incredibly similar.**

The gems looked at the portraits astounded, Pearl on the verge of happy tears, Garnet smiling softly, and Amethyst admiring herself.

"These are beautiful Maxwell, I had no idea you had the ability to do this." Pearl exclaims as she holds onto the drawing.

"Well I didn't do it on my own. Steven was the one who encouraged me to try, and Obsidian was able to make whatever I saw in my head come to life."

"It is still impressive nonetheless, I hope you will make good use of this new skill." Garnet says as she looks over the drawing more.

"That's right! Now you can do the portraits for Mr. Smiley!" Steven realized in excitement.

"Well then I better get a good night's sleep, tomorrow I got some drawing to do." Max smiles as he twirls the pencil in his hand.

The next day Max and Steven set up the portrait booth, doing the portrait's for ten dollars for each person. An extra 5 if you wanted it in color.

"So new guy, let's see if you can do better than the stinker from yesterday." Nanefua says as she takes a seat and hands over 15 dollars. Max only smirks and Steven gives a nod, signaling him to start. Soon enough Max finishes the portrait and reveals it for all of the Funland customers to see. "Oh my, I look so young in this! Money well spent." The elderly yet spunky woman takes the portrait smiling, going off to show it to others. People began lining up, everyone wanting to have a portrait of their own. Max cracks his knuckles as he gets to work, Steven rushing to get supplies and sharpen pencils, not to mention some food to keep up his energy.

After many hours later, the last customer got their portrait and Max's hands were aching.

"Steven and Max! I cannot express how happy I am to see you two!" Mr. Smiley comes over, putting away the money. "With this cash, I can pay off the rebuilding for any broken rides and machines, maybe even hire more employees so I can rest." He gives a small cut of the money to Max and Steven before chuckling and carrying the heavy load of money.

"We made so many people happy today Max, imagine what you can do for the world with this art!"

"Whoa slow down Steven, I'm not gonna go worldwide with this. Fame does strange things to people, besides I'm pretty tired, my face must look like a mess."

"Face...hey! Why don't you do a self-portrait?"

"A self-portrait? You mean draw myself? I mean, it sounds like an interesting challenge."

"Great! I'll give you a mirror and you can draw yourself." Steven smiles wide as they head back to the temple, giving Max the necessary stuff to do a self-portrait. "I'm gonna go to bed, then it can be a big surprise for the morning."

"Alrighty, goodnight Steven." Max chuckles softly as he sees the sleepy boy head to bed. He looks at the reflection of the mirror and the paper before grabbing his pencil and beginning.

Steven wakes up with an audible yawn before jumping out of bed to find Max.

"Max? Where are you?" He finds him nowhere in his bed or in the kitchen. "Maybe he got a head start on doing portraits at Funland." He heads off to said amusement park to the portrait booth.

"Alright Max, lets get started."

"Uh kid, wrong person."

"Huh?" He looks to see instead of Maxwell in the booth, it was Sour Cream and Onion's mom, not to mention friend of Amethyst, Vidalia. She seemed to be painting up portraits for customers instead, everyone still seeming to be delighted with the results.

"Yeah, I saw some of that guy's work. He's pretty good, but he came to me last night and asked me to take over the booth. I couldn't say no to the chance to get out of the house and get paid for painting random people."

"Oh well, do you know where he is? He was doing a self portrait last night before I went to bed, and I couldn't find him this morning."

"I doubt he would leave a friend like you, he's probably just out for a walk or something, you'll find him soon enough." She ruffles his hair and gets back to working on the portraits.

Steven makes his way back to the temple, and find Max eating some cereal with tired eyes.

"Oh hey Steven, sorry I was out getting some fresh air."

"That's okay but, why did you stop doing the portraits."

"One, we don't need the money, and two, I think I exhausted my drawing abilities. When I tried to do the self portrait, my drawing was horrible again. In a panic I tried to look for someone else to do the portraits, and found Vidalia doing a late night painting of the sky, so I asked her to do it. She's got more passion for art than I ever did, she'll be doing much better."

"I see, a shame your drawing skills are gone, I was hoping you can draw one of my dreams last night. I saw Cookie Cat and Dogcopter fighting, but it didn't make sense because they're both good and-" Steven goes off explaining his dream, Max listening as best as he can as he continues to eat, trying to forget last night.

"This is me…" He looks at the finished drawing, anger surging through him before he rips it up entirely. He pants softly, and clutches his head, trying to calm down. He feels Obsidian try to soothe him, but he knew the picture would haunt him. It didn't matter if he looked into a mirror, how he saw himself wouldn't be changing for quite some time.

"And, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh yeah Steven, sorry I didn't get much sleep last night.

"That's okay, I'll tell you later." He pats Max's shoulder before going to make his own breakfast. Max sighs as he finishes his cereal, but his eyes glance to see a piece of paper he forgot to throw away after ripping up the drawing. He makes sure not to look suspicious as he picks it up and and opens up the trash can before throwing it away, wanting to leave it as a forgotten memory.


	34. Corruption Vs Perfection

A calm lifestyle seemed to have been settling in for Beach City, but even during peace Max knew he had to keep his training up if he wanted to stay proper ally of the gems. He gets on the beach and sighs, reaching into his cloak to take out his phone and set a track of inspirational training music and a timer. He focuses and burns the surrounding sand until he made tons of life size hardened statues of human like figures. He raises his fists before rushing at the statues, bashing every one of them with his bare hands, leaving only a trail of rubble and dust behind behind before using his fire to make a ginormous stone figure, around 12 feet tall. He swiftly delivers as many powerful punches as he can, trying to destroy it as fast as he can. Cracks grow all over the recently created rock until Max gives one more powerful strike, obliterating it.

He walks over to his phone and notices his time. He created and destroyed 30 stone figures, including the large one at the end. His best record was 40 seconds, but this time it took him 60 seconds.

"Damn, too slow, 20 seconds could mean the loss of a life depending on the situation."

After a day of training and cleaning up leftover rubble, Maxwell makes his way back into the temple to rest, yet to his surprise sees Lapis and Peridot there chatting with Steven.

"Oh hey Max! Look who came over to visit!" Steven said with a wide smile, his attitude always putting everyone at ease.

"I see, looks like the barn mates came over for a visit."

"If you must know, our home is looking particularly amazing, even with our field of organics." Peridot smugly said, Max only chuckling and rolling his eyes.

"I gotta agree with Peridot, while it's not a living army or anything, it does give a nice view." Lapis quips. Max still had a small uneasy feeling around her, but it was barely noticeable by this point in time.

"This is so great! You two have become such good friends, time really passed ever since our first meetings." Steven says as he begins to reminisce, only for the three to scowl and leave Max in confusion.

"What's wrong? Did you all not get along well at first?"

"Yeah, you weren't here for that, lot of things I'd like to leave in the past." Lapis said as she seems to be trying to block away memories, a feeling Max knew all too well.

"Wait, Max how did you miss the news of the whole ocean being gone?" Steven didn't want to remind Lapis of the incident, but it confused him how Max apparently lived for 70 years and didn't hear of it.

"Oh that thing? I mean I heard snippets, people blaming it as a gravitational phenomena, but I was kinda busy more mainland in Asia, looking for some...people who went into hiding. Probably best if I don't go into detail. Anyways, you mean Lapis was behind that?"

"Yeah that was me, trying to get back to Homeworld. What a plan that was." She says sarcastically, taking a couch pillow and putting it on her face.

"Impressive, all that water should have been enough to make it past the moon, but a whole society unknown to mankind is way farther than that."

"That lead to our meeting, then going to Earth, much crying, singing, emotions and drama later, that brings us to now." Peridot sums up.

"Wow I sure missed a lot, I knew I should have come back here a decade sooner, but then again I probably wouldn't have been as strong as I was when I first fought the gems...although I got weaker now."  
"You...fought the three of them?" Lapis asked curiously.

"Well, it was a few one on one battles...one on two I guess for Garnet, doing math with her as a factor is so confusing. Long story short, I was able to prove my strength and join as an asset to the team."  
"Interesting, I don't think anyone really put up a fight against them except for Lapis and Jas-" She cuts herself off by clamping a hand over her mouth, her eyes darting to Lapis.

"It's fine Peridot, I don't like talking about it, but it's still a part of our history now." Lapis said uncaringly.

"Oh right, Steven told me there was another one. Jasper was it?" Max stated, not seeming to understand the issue.

"Yeah um, she did, bad things." Steven said solemnly, remembering his experiences with her.

"But you beat her until she carved her own undoing, fusing with a...corrupted gem." He looks to his arm and then to Steven. By all accounts him and his gem were fine, yet why did it affect Jasper?

"Serves her right, then I heroically used my powers to best her." Peridot perked up with a proud smile on her face.

"Very strange considering my gem is corrupted, and I fused with Steven." Max said nonchalantly, looking at how all of their expressions changed to surprise.

"That's right, I keep forgetting. You said my mom and the others were fighting a corrupted gem, but it went into you, and turned out to be Obsidian." Steven taps his chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah, my best guess is that our human halves served as a barrier, keeping the corruption from spreading into your gem." Max eyes his gem arm, curious as to the properties of corruption.

"Alright, how about enough of this stuff, before you came I wanted to offer Steven a chance to ride the tractor, and if he could help us with growing new stuff." Lapis smiles as she returns to the previous conversation. Steven of course jumps at the chance, but Max was off in his own little world by now. His corrupted gem is what gave him power, yet he still kept a sane mindset, albeit some may argue he wasn't sane due to his past. He saw the glow of the warp pad as the three left, leaving Max alone since the Crystal Gems were out on their own mission.

With curiosity gnawing at his mind, he walked over to the door of the temple, seeing the five colors on it for each gem adorned on a star, Rose Quartz, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst. He put his hand up to the door, looking for any response. He willed himself to think of the room where the bubbled gems were kept, the lights flash weakly and the door opens, leading to the room.

"Just what are you capable of Obsidian…" He shakes his head and walks inside, looking at the multitude of collected gems and shards until one peaked his interest, an orange one. With care, he jumped up and grabbed the bubble, falling back down with it in his hands. Now with a closer look, he noticed strange green blemishes on the gem. He felt his inhibitions drain away as his hand makes the bubble dissipate, leaving the gem to fall directly into his obsidian hand. His hand gives off a strange black aura as it wraps around the gem, the green markings melting off the gem and into his hand. Maxwell lets out a sharp cry of pain as he feels Obsidian unconsciously drain any remnants of the corruption off of the orange gem, dropping it onto the ground during the intense process. Soon the pain melts away before turning into a hot sensation flowing through his body and flesh. The obsidian hand grows more along his arm, until his entire right arm was made of the hard material instead.

Max pants heavily as he sits on the ground, flexing the arm to get a better feeling of the transformation. He felt, stronger, more alive, as if he was back in top condition, possibly even stronger. A bright light shines in front of him, Max instinctively getting back up on his feet as he sees the gem take a physical form. Once the light fades, Max smirks as he finally sees Jasper's form, similar to how Steven described her. A quartz warrior of an orange color, strong and fierce, wearing an outfit with a diamond insignia. With a startled look, the gem looks at Max.

"Who are you? Where am I? What...what happened to me?" She looks over her body, possibly for any signs of the corruption.

"My name is Maxwell Ignitus, a warrior that ascended the limits of a human. You are in the temple of the Crystal Gems, where you were bubbled until a cure was found for the corruption. As for what happened, when you fused with a corrupted gem, the infection spread to you. With some help I managed to remove the affliction from you."

"A human...cured me? Wait the gems...Rose...I'll make them pay!" She looks at him with a snarl. "Tell me where Rose Quartz is!"

"Rose isn't necessarily around anymore, I'm guessing you're looking for her son, he is kinda busy."  
"Then take me to her, unless you want me to do this the hard way." She grins menacingly as she readies her fists.

"Humans know how to meld strength and intelligence into becoming great warriors, if I'm superior to all them, then you shouldn't underestimate me." He glares at her as he feels his right arm tremble, the need to test his new strength aching in him. Jasper only growls and starts spinning in place before rushing at Max. "So is that a move all Quartzes can do? I can't really imagine Rose or Steven doing that." Max puffs into smoke before rising higher in the air, leaving Jasper confused.

"Where are you!?"

"Up here." Max calls out as he reforms and gives a strong drop kick to her head, but Jasper retaliates by summoning her helmet and headbutting Max into a wall. "Not bad, but you're gonna have to try harder than that!" Max's right arm aims at Jasper before he releases a column of vicious fire at her. Jasper jumps out of the way before beginning to spin again. Max ignites a fire to surround his body as he rushes toward Jasper, his fist and her spinning body colliding and creating a large shockwave. As the dust settles, Jasper was holding Max by the collar.

"Face it, you lost human."

"Did I now?" Max seems to completely confident, his eyes scanning around the room. Jasper looks up in confusion until she sees another Maxwell.

"Hi there." He chuckles as more of them appear out of thin air, until there were five in total.

"I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know I could do this. Maybe absorbing your corruption gave me an upgrade." Max grabs onto her arms and gives a swift kick, flipping out of her grasp. The team of Maxes aim their arms at her, fire accumulating at the palm of their obsidian arms. "Five Star Furnace!" Simultaneously the humans release powerful infernos directly at Jasper, causing humongous damage to the gem's body, bringing her close to having to revert back into her gem. Once the attack ends, four Maxes disappear, leaving only the original. Looking over Jasper, she was exhausted with soot and burns all over her body, barely able to stay standing. He walks over to Jasper with a soft smile, bringing out his hand to help her up. She looks at his hand in confusion before slapping it away.

"I don't need your pity, just finish me off."  
"Now where would be the fun in that? You're pretty strong, and I would love a sparring partner."  
"Shut up! I'm not looking for a partner, I'm here for revenge."  
"For your diamond, I guess I could understand that."  
"How could a human ever understand me?"  
"You're not the only one who's suffered from betrayal." Max slowly undoes his shirt to reveal his scarred body. "Most of these scars are from people I believed were friends or someone I could love, in the end though they only hurt me for their own personal gain. Some people say I should be proud of my scars, but what pride is their for losing the ability to love and trust for years?"

"..."

"If I were you, I'd probably want revenge just as much...but Rose is gone."

"No she's not, she's hiding as some human!"  
"...tell me, do you know about human reproduction?"  
"Why would I ever want to know about something like that?"  
"Because it reveals how Rose Quartz ceased to exist."

"...y-you're lying!" She rushes at him to try and punch him, but he only glares at her and catches her fist with his hand.

"A gem doesn't necessarily have the same organs as a human, she had to shapeshift them in order to share her love with a human."  
"Stop talking!" She tries to headbutt him but Max only uses her momentum to flip her onto her back.

"She soon began carrying a developing human within her body, but she didn't have the proper components for the baby. If she wanted to stay alive, the baby wouldn't have been able to live."  
"NO!" Jasper struggles to get back up, but Max snaps his fingers and hardened magma holds down her arms and legs.

"She knew what she had to do, in order for the baby to live, she had to give up her life, which means her gem. She's been gone for 14 years Jasper! Rose Quartz died to let her son live!"  
Jasper only yells out and breaks out of the restraints to tackle Max down. She raises her fists to strike him but Max only gave her a hard stare.

"Rose is gone. Killing the Crystal Gems and her son won't accomplish anything." Jasper didn't know how to respond, only letting her arms drop to her sides and letting Max up.

"What do I do now? I was faithful only to Pink Diamond...and now I have nothing."  
"You do have something, an identity as a powerful warrior. You are a quartz gem, now isn't the time for you to lay down and die. On Earth you have the option to grow stronger and better than ever before. I won't force you to join the Crystal Gems, but the offer is there. Until you decide what to do, I can provide you shelter, and in return you help me train as well."  
Both of them were silent for a solid minute until Jasper finally nods her head. "Don't think I'll ever join those who took everything away from me...but the chance to become stronger is not something I can pass up."

"Alright, just understand if I see you attack Steven or someone he cares about, I'll have to stop you...unless you manage to become stronger than me, then there is no one to stop you." Max chuckles solemnly as he leads her out, a new beginning for Jasper.


	35. Answers

"Impossible...YOU UNDID HER CORRUPTION?"

Revealing the news went relatively better than expected. Once Steven, Lapis, and Peridot came back, Max had finished explaining his recent conflict with Jasper to the Crystal Gems, and Pearl was currently ranting about what Max did.

"No one was able to cure corruption, Rose's tears couldn't, Steven's saliva made progress but not enough, and you're telling me that you did it so simply?"  
"Okay, it was not a simple cure. Yes the corruption is removed, but that's because I absorbed it. The side effects are still under research." Max says in a feeble attempt to correct and calm Pearl.

"Wait what's going on?" Steven asked curiously as he, Peridot, and Lapis walk toward them.

"Maxwell apparently absorbed Jasper's corruption." Garnet answered in a calm manner, albeit her hands fidgeting showed she was having trouble keeping her demeanor stoic.

"He did what!?" Lapis shouted out before looking at Max.

"Oh here we go. I didn't do it on purpose okay, I was curious so I looked at her gem. But before I could put her bubbled gem away, Obsidian acted on her own and started taking the corruption, look!" Before Lapis could try and tear him apart, Max revealed to everyone how his obsidian hand now covered his entire right arm and shoulder. "When Jasper reformed, she acted as you would have guessed, not in the mood to thank me and trying to get to Steven. I gave her the truth of where Rose is, tested my new strength out on her, and now she's in the room with bubbled gems, currently too damaged emotionally and physically to try and fight me again."

"Wait, so now we have a way to get rid of the corruption?" Steven asked hopefully, thinking of a certain gem and her friends.

"I'm not sure Steven, it's possible but absorbing so much corruption in a short amount of time could cause Obsidian to grow out of control like when she was ripped off my arm." Max explains sadly, hating to put a damper on Steven's growing hope.

"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Amethyst asked the question everyone was thinking, all unsure of what to do with the powerful quartz gem.

"You can talk with her if you wish, but I made a deal with her. Everytime she feels up to it, we will fight again. If she manages to beat me, then she is free to leave and do as she wishes, but as long as I keep winning, she is to stay a prisoner."

"Well then it's simple." Peridot cuts in. "You just keep winning the fights, and we don't have a problem."  
"Not exactly. Look at this." Max breathes slowly before trying to make a clone of himself, unfortunately said clone appears, but is just a head.

"Hello there!" The clone head says before hopping around to the disturbance of everyone in the room.

"Yeah, I guess my power up from the corruption is only temporary, I can even feel the obsidian on my arm receding slowly. I am not sure if I'm strong enough to win again."

"Then I see only one choice...we talk to her!" Again Steven gives the optimistic answer, but the gems seem very uncomfortable with that plan of action.

"Steven's got a point, but it's only a choice, you do not have to talk with her if any of you are too uncomfortable, but any in favor of the plan, join me and Steven because we'll be walking into the room." With Steven and Max in agreement, they look to the gems in the room. Lapis shakes her head and chooses to just go back to the barn, Peridot accompanying her. Pearl and Garnet choose to stay, wanting to be lookout in case Jasper were to try and escape. Amethyst though seems to be the only one to join, seemingly curious to see Jasper again. With everyone decided, Max takes Steven and Amethyst into the room.

The familiar sight of the dark pink room and numerous bubbled gems appear in front of the trio. In the far end of the room was Jasper sitting and hugging her knees. Once she heard their footsteps though, her eyes widened and she got up onto her feet.

"What? Back for more?...Or are you here to taunt me? Bringing Rose and the runt in front of me, what could you possibly want from this."  
"I'm not here for a fight, just to talk." Max pats Steven on the back so he can walk forward.

"Jasper, I may not understand what you're going through, or how life on Homeworld is, or how you felt when you lost your Diamond. All I can really do is this." To everyone's surprise, Steven gets on his knees and puts his head down. "I am so sorry. I know apologies probably mean nothing to you, but it's all I can do. Rose Quartz...she shattered your Diamond, was part of this big war...and chose to leave me with it. Maybe she thought Earth was safe for me, I don't think I will ever understand what she intended, but all I can say is that I wish to be different from her. I'm not Rose, I may have her gem but I'm Steven. I have my own thoughts and dreams, I never want to have a gem shattered, I just want everyone to be happy and get along, no matter how dumb it sounds." Tears visibly formed in his eyes as he laid out his feelings to Jasper, who surprisingly was listening well. "If I could give you back your Diamond I would, in hopes though that it would stop Earth and Homeworld from being enemies, and maybe...just maybe learn to value peace and love more that war and death."  
With Steven's last words, he stand up and wipes the tears from his eyes before walking back to Max.

"..." Jasper continued to be silent, seeming to be deep in thought over what he said, but wouldn't say anything.

"Anything you wanted to say Amethyst?"

"No, not really...well um, I met the other Amethysts and Jaspers in the human zoo. It was funny...you call me a runt and disgrace...but they treated me so kindly, like I was a part of them. Heck, they even let us escape with Steven's dad. Did Holly Blue give you any trouble, or were you elsewhere?" Despite Amethyst's attempt for a conversation, Jasper remained silent. She sighs before looking at Max and then leaving the room with Steven.

Max looked over to Jasper before walking closer. He took a seat next to her and just breathed slowly.

"...so...he really isn't Rose."

"Mhm"

"...just what is this...Steven, and what are you?"  
"An interesting question, but no one can really give a straight answer. Hybrids through different circumstances? He was born, Obsidian latched onto my arm. Just where do I start?"

"...I want to know everything, teach me all you can."

With that, Max began to retell the stories of what Max and Steven faced, either separate or together. Steven's birth and childhood, Max's suffering and growth. Steven's influence on the Crystal Gems, Max's training and learning. Jasper listened closely as Max told the many stories of what the brothers have endured, fighting the white claws, dealing with emotions and trust, and just trying to understand who they are.

Soon Max checked his phone to see it was late at night by the time he finished retelling his adventures.

"...so now you know. It's not a simple thing me and Steven go through in an attempt to keep peace. The past, present, and future gives us problems that seem to never end...and now that you have this information, what will you do?"  
Max looks down at his right hand, seeing it was back to its original form, not noticing Jasper as she gets on her feet, and delivers a powerful strike to the back of his neck. Max's eyes close as he falls unconscious.

"Ugh, my head...wait, Jasper!" He quickly gets up on his feet and runs out of the room. "Steven! Gather the gems, Jasper's...gone." He looks to see Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl with Steven holding a note.

"We know, Steven was just telling us."

"She asked me to write this note and then left." Steven shows it to Max for him to read outloud.

"I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly, but after seeing and hearing about your group, I feel like I understand the Crystal Gems more. I may never join, or understand what Earth has to protect, but I will at least leave you in peace. Maxwell and Steven, don't let anyone stop you two from reaching your goals, do whatever you believe in. From, Jasper."

The room was silent as they look at the note. Afterwards the group split up to search every are the warp pads go to, even the barn where Lapis and Peridot were, but found no trace of the orange gem. Whether they meet again or not is unsure, for now the Crystal Gems were to continue protecting Earth the way they know how. Although...things seemed to be about to get worse. A new threat heading for Earth was approaching, as worlds begin to collide.

 **To be continued in the crossover nobody asked for,**

 **Max and Jack: Timelines Crossed**


End file.
